Anaxagoras was a thinker and philosopher who lived in Greece
around 400 BC. Being interested in finding out as much as he could about the
natural world, he came up with a few theories about the relationship of the Sun
and the Earth.
He appreciated that the Sun must be at some distance from
the Earth, and he reckoned that it was probably a fiery metal ball. However,
when it came to estimating its size he was slightly out when he wrote that it
must be a bit bigger than the Peloponnese peninsula of southern Greece. This
would give it a diameter of around 150 miles!
Even though we know that Anaxagoras was hopelessly wrong in
his estimate (Planet Earth would fit into the Sun's diameter 109 times!), at
least he made the attempt to describe a physical phenomenon based on
observations rather than relying on myth.
However, this did not do him any good, because his views ran
counter to those of the religious authorities who maintained that the sun was a
god (Helios) who drove a fiery chariot across the sky during the day and then
cut through the ocean under the Earth at night so as to be in position to do
the same the next day. For stating his heretical views Anaxagoras received
death threats and was eventually driven out of Athens.
© John Welford
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