https://greekerthanthegreeks.com/2017/10/the-greeks-did-it-first-20-amazing.html
Amazing Ancient Greek Inventions Still in Use Today
1. Alarm clock
Called a clepsydra (water thief), this was the most accurate clock in the world up until the use of the pendulum.
Invented by Ctesibus (285 – 222 BC)
2. Vending machine
The first vending machine was invented by Heron, or Hero, of Alexandria (10 – 70 AD), a mathematician and engineer.
A coin, inserted into the top of the machine, dropped onto a pan which was attached to a lever, which then opened a valve, allowing, wait for it, holy water to flow.
3. Computer
Forget all you know about Apple, Bill Gates and Microsoft, the very first computer, an analogue computer, was found by sponge divers concealed in the wreckage of a ship, off the shore of the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901.
Said to date back to around 87BC, the Antikythera mechanism, as it’s known, was encased in a wooden box, and consisted of a clockwork mechanism of about thirty bronze gears and was used to calculate astronomical positions and eclipses, for use in calendars, and other astrological goings on.
4. Central heating
Before the Romans came up with the hypocaust system, the ancient Minoans of Crete had already invented the first, underfloor central heating.
Slaves kept roaring fires burning, which produced hot air to force hot water through clay pipes under the floor.
5. Plumbing
Again, as with central heating, the ancient Minoans of Crete, were the first civilizations to have underground pipes, carrying water
6. Shower
Showers, in the form of communal shower rooms, cold water only, the Greeks believed cold water toughened the skin, have been found at the ancient site of Pergamon, an ancient Greek city
7. Automatic doors
Heron of Alexandria, of vending machine fame, came up with the idea for automatic doors; a steam powered hydraulic system, using air heated by fire, opened the very first automatic doors belonging to a temple in Alexandria
10. Steam engine
Called an aeoliplie, or the Hero engine, it’s a simple, bladeless steam turbine which spins when the central water container is heated.
16. Archimedes screw
The Greek mathematician, of “Eurika” fame, Archimedes, invented a screw pump; used to transfer and lift low lying water into irrigation canals, and to remove bilge water.
Aristarchus of Samos (c. 310 - c. 230 BCE) was an ancient Greek mathematician and astronomer from Ionia who came up with a revolutionary astronomical hypothesis. He claimed the Sun, not the Earth, was the fixed centre of the universe, and that the Earth, along with the rest of the planets, revolved around the Sun. He also said that the stars were distant suns that remained unmoved and that the size of the universe was much larger than his contemporaries believed
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-greek-eratosthenes-calculated-earth-circumference-2016-6
How an ancient Greek mathematician calculated the Earth's circumference. In the mid-20th century, we began launching satellites into space that would help us determine the exact circumference of the Earth, 40,030 km.
But over 2,000 years earlier in ancient Greece, a man arrived at nearly that exact same figure by putting a stick in the ground. That man was Eratosthenes. A Greek mathematician and the head of the library at Alexandria.