There are many sciences, the object of study of which is the Earth and its nature. This article will focus on one of them. What is geography and what does it study? Who introduced this term to science and when?
Earth sciences
There is a whole complex of sciences, the object of study of which is one - the Earth and its nature. They are also called the natural sciences. This is physics (the term from the ancient Greek and translates as "nature"), biology, ecology, chemistry and, of course, geography. Next, we will examine in more detail the goals and objectives of this scientific discipline, as well as find out which of the scientists first introduced the term "geography".
It is curious that in ancient times, in the era of the emergence of science as such, all knowledge about the Earth was combined into one discipline. However, then, with the accumulation of new knowledge, earth sciences began to differentiate. So there was physics, geography, geology, biology, and then dozens of new disciplines.
Nevertheless, all these sciences are united by one object of research. But their goals and objectives are different. Physics studies all natural processes and phenomena, biology describes the diversity of the animal and plant world of our planet, but geography is a universal science that studies the patterns of functioning of the geographic shell of the Earth.
Which of the first scientists introduced the term "geography"?
The term "geography" consists of two words: "geo" - earth and "grapho" - I write, I describe. That is, literally it can be translated as "geography". Who was the first to use the term "geography" in the history of world science?
He was an outstanding ancient Greek philosopher and thinker Eratosthenes from the city of Cyrene. He lived and worked in ancient Greece in the third century BC. The scientific interests of Eratosthenes were so diverse that today he would be called a geographer, a mathematician, an astronomer, and a philologist.
Eratosthenes of Cyrene can be called one of the first geographers in history. In addition to him, other ancient Greek scientists - Strabo, Herodotus, Ptolemy, were engaged in this science. The latter, by the way, wrote a voluminous work under the laconic name: "Geography".
Contribution of Eratosthenes to Geographical Science
The merit of Eratosthenes lies also in the fact that he was the first to try to measure the size of the globe (namely, the length of its circumference). Of course, he already then believed that our Earth has the shape of a ball. As a result of the measurements, he got a pretty accurate number - 39 590 kilometers (the true length of the earth's equator is about 40,000 km)!
How did Eratosthenes so accurately calculate the size of the Earth? After all, he did not have the exact instruments and devices, and he, of course, also could not ascend into space. The scientist's main tool was ... The Sun! For his measurements, he took two cities: Alexandria and Siena. When the Sun was at its zenith above Siena, he calculated that in Alexandria the heavenly luminary “lags” by 1/50 of the full circle. Knowing the exact distance between the two cities, Eratosthenes multiplied it by 50 times and got the length of the earth's circle!
Now you know which of the scientists was the first to introduce the term “geography”. What does this science study at the present stage?
What does geography study?
To date, the main subject of the study of geography can be formulated as follows: analysis of the spatial features of the organization of the geographic shell of the Earth. The latter, as is known, consists of four geospheres: litho-, atmosphere-, hydro- and biospheres. Accordingly, the whole science of geography is divided into many narrow disciplines, each of which has its own goals and objectives.
In the structure of modern geographical science, two major sections are distinguished:
- Physiography.
- Socio-economic geography.
Among the main and most pressing problems that concern modern geographers, the following can be distinguished:
- the answer to the question "what does geography study";
- rationale for the existence of such a science;
- determination of the main tasks of geography of the 21st century;
- definition of the essence of the concepts of “geographical envelope”, “geographical space”, “landscape”, “natural complex”, “geosystem” and others;
- development of the theory and methodology of theoretical geography (or metageography);
- drawing up a unified and structurally logical system of geographical sciences;
- the search for ways to improve the methods of geographical research , etc.
Finally...
Now you know which of the scientists was the first to introduce the term "geography" into science. This was the ancient Greek thinker Eratosthenes of Cyrene, who lived in the III century BC. But in the history of world science he distinguished himself not only by this achievement. In particular, Eratosthenes quite accurately measured the size of our planet, while not having any modern instruments.
The term "geography" is translated from Greek as "geography." However, the goals and objectives of modern science are more fundamental and multifaceted than just the usual description of the earth's surface.