Teachers! Take note! Have your students take part in the Eratosthenes Experiment – Sept. 24, 2018! (I suggested this experiment as a classroom experiment a few years ago – Was Eratosthenes Correct? A Multi-Class Science Project
Eratosthenes was a mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist who lived in ancient Greece. In 240 B.C. Eratosthenes made the first good measurement of the size of Earth’s circumference.
You can join with classrooms around the world and repeat his experiment with your students! The Experiment: Ask your students to calculate the circumference of the Earth and submit your data to the experiment’s website. Find the time of your local noon at your location. Please use the web-based NOAA Solar Calculator or Solar Calculator or the Stellarium software (A short guide for using Stellarium to calculate your local noon at your location can be found here in English and in Italian).
Take a one-meter stick (H= 1 meter, see figure below) and place it vertically to the ground. Ask your students to measure the length of the stick to make sure it is one meter long. At the time scheduled to conduct the experiment, … Continue reading →
Thoughts From The Heart On The Left 