There have been followers of "Flat earth" theory and it used to be quite big number which it still is in some of the so called "flat earth societies". They believed that the world lived on a flat disk and one can drop into depths of sky when they venture out of the edge!!
This autumnal equinox, Nepal Astronomical Society (NASO) is collaborating with SPACE-India, Delhi which has devised this simple yet very powerful and important experiment as an international citizen science project to measure the size of the earth with shadows measurements – “Project Paridhi – measure the earth again” as a new collaborative works along the citizen scientists of Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, China, Nepal and Russia .
Under this project students will replicate and in fact take actual measurements of the shadows made by sun to gather the size of earth and its shape as done 2300 years back by astronomer Eratosthenes. This project involves reading of shadows at local noon by pair of teams on the same longitude on the globe. Our experiments from Kathmandu will align with the citizen scientists of Patna and Bhubaneswor of India that fall almost with one degree of longitude and readings taken at the same time from these cities can tell us about the size and shape of the earth.
The observation base will be extended to global arena by next winter solstice in December 2011. This project is a showcase for proving that science can be best learnt by doing.
If you are interested to join us for this exciting experiments, find us at:
Venue: Celebration Co-Ed School (http://thecelebration.edu.np/)
Address: Jorpati, Narayantar, Kathmandu, Nepal
Date: Friday, September 23, 2011
Time: 09:00-14:00 Hrs
Contact: +977-01-4910332 or +977-9841485867 (if needed)
Please be there at 08:45 Hrs, Friday, September 23, 2011 if you want to participate in the experiment. For more info on this project please visit http://www.space-india.org/spaceindiaorg/paridhi/
Lets celebrate this autumnal equinox in a different way at Celebration Co-Ed School!
