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A prime-number sieve is later attributed to Eratosthenes; it is not a recovered classroom autograph

The public attribution is later (Nicomachus and subsequent mathematical tradition), not a surviving Alexandrian school tablet. Modern programming textbooks that animate the sieve are not his acts. In the causal graph this event strengthens Digital Learning Access, a driver that weakens Learning Poverty Rate (low- and middle-income countries) — an improving welfare path.

Sources: [1][2]

Read the full account

The public attribution is later (Nicomachus and subsequent mathematical tradition), not a surviving Alexandrian school tablet. Modern programming textbooks that animate the sieve are not his acts.

Context

Do store the received mathematical heading as a knowledge path of medium confidence on authorship, high on the later name of the method.

Eratosthenes’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below.

Conventional years are c.276–c.194 BCE. Almost no autograph survives. Cleomedes, Strabo, Nicomachus, and later encyclopedias are the public file. Classroom globe reconstructions are not his acts. Contribution is complex.

Why it matters

It is not a unique coefficient for later computing, and it is not a recovered autograph.

Who was responsible

Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.

  • Eratosthenes

    Person

    Direct responsibility

    responsibility level 0.4 · verified

What changed

Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.

Evidence

The sources behind this fact and its verification state.

Verified2 sources on file
  1. 1.Britannica — EratosthenesEncyclopaedia Britannica · High credibility · verified
  2. 2.MacTutor — Eratosthenes of CyreneUniversity of St Andrews · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish

Britannica and MacTutor print a prime-finding algorithm later called the sieve of Eratosthenes, in which composites are struck from a list of naturals.

Britannica’s sieve discussion inside the Eratosthenes life and MacTutor independently describe the algorithm as credited to him in later tradition.

Established: later mathematical tradition names a sieve after him. Not established: a third-century BCE autograph of the procedure, or that every later textbook proof is his wording.

Eratosthenes did not file a later UNESCO form, a later Loeb colophon, or a later museum label as a personal act.

Causal path

How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.

  1. ActorEratosthenes
  2. contributed toFactA prime-number sieve is later attributed to Eratosthenes; it is not a recovered classroom autograph
  3. strengthensDriverDigital Learning Access
  4. weakensIndicatorLearning Poverty Rate (low- and middle-income countries)

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). A prime-number sieve is later attributed to Eratosthenes; it is not a recovered classroom autograph. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/era-sieve-later-attributed

https://factrail.ai/facts/era-sieve-later-attributed

Accessed 16 October 2026.

By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed

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