PHYS 284 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Cardinal Direction, Distant Star, Ellipse

• School: Concordia University
• Department: Physics
• Course: PHYS 284
• Professor: Mario D'Amico

Document Summary

Practical benefits for timekeeping, keeping track of seasonal changes, and navigation. In central africa learned to predict rainfall patterns by making careful observations of the. The orientation of the crescent moon can be used to predict how much rainfall should be expected over coming days and weeks. In central nigeria, the orientation of the horns of a waxing crescent moon correlates with the average amount of rainfall at different times of year. Local people could use this fact to predict the weather with reasonable accuracy. The seven days of the week were named after the seven planets of ancient times. Note the a(cid:374)(cid:272)ie(cid:374)t defi(cid:374)itio(cid:374) of pla(cid:374)et (cid:373)ea(cid:374) (cid:862)(cid:449)a(cid:374)de(cid:396)i(cid:374)g sta(cid:396)(cid:863) Uranus is faintly visible to the naked eye, but it was recognized as a planet in ancient times. Ancient cultures built structures or created special devices to help with it. We also trace the origins of our modern clock to ancient egypt.