Following in the Footsteps of Eratosthenes
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For the second year consecutively, the Planetarium Science Center (PSC) at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, hosts ‘On the Footsteps of Eratosthenes.’ The workshop is held on the 21st June, 2004, in cooperation with the French Cultural Center and the Egyptian Ministry of Education.
By participating together via video- conference, students from Alexandria and Aswan in Egypt, as well as, France will work together to calculate the Earth’s circumference, following the steps taken by Eratosthenes, one of the Chief Librarians of the ancient Library of Alexandria. Students will be able to compare results on their calculations of the Earth’s circumference, and the degree of inclination of the Earth’s axis, on the 21st of June, the first day of the summer solstice and the longest in the Solar year.
‘On the Footsteps of Eratosthenes,’ is a workshop that aims to develop the students’ research skills, as they are trained throughout the school year, to make their own calculations, as well as, look-up historical information about Eratosthenes.
The PSC is hosting M. Denis Savoie, Director of the Palais de la Decouverte, France, to supervise the workshop and answer the students’ questions. M. Savoie will also inaugurate his own design of a Sundial, which depends on the shadow of a person standing beside it to tell the time.
Eratosthenes was an astronomer, mathematician, a geographer and a philosopher. He was born in Libya in 276 B.C, studied in Athens then in Alexandria, where he became the Chief Librarian of its library in 236 B.C.