A 10th-century Greek manuscript contains Aristarchus's original geometric proofs for calculating celestial distances and sizes. This is the ancient computational geometry that predates modern astronomy by 2000+ years.
Aristarchus used pure trigonometry and shadow angles to estimate:
• Earth-Moon distance: ~60 Earth radii (remarkably accurate)
• Sun distance: 18-20x Moon distance (underestimated, but the method was sound)
• Relative sizes using eclipse geometry
The diagrams show he understood heliocentric concepts centuries before Copernicus. His angle-based approach is basically the same raytracing math we use in graphics engines today.
What's wild: he did this with zero telescopes, just naked-eye observations + geometry. The manuscript proves ancient Greeks had computational thinking that rivals modern algorithmic approaches.
Aristarchus used pure trigonometry and shadow angles to estimate:
• Earth-Moon distance: ~60 Earth radii (remarkably accurate)
• Sun distance: 18-20x Moon distance (underestimated, but the method was sound)
• Relative sizes using eclipse geometry
The diagrams show he understood heliocentric concepts centuries before Copernicus. His angle-based approach is basically the same raytracing math we use in graphics engines today.
What's wild: he did this with zero telescopes, just naked-eye observations + geometry. The manuscript proves ancient Greeks had computational thinking that rivals modern algorithmic approaches.