PHYS 1055 Chapter 3: Chapter 3 TBN
Document Summary
Practical benefits of astronomy: astronomy had practical benefits for timekeeping, keeping track of seasonal changes, and navigation, one amazing example comes from people of central africa. In western africa it could be predicted the amount of rainfall based on the orientation of the moon (waxing crescent) In the daytime people could tell time by observing the suns path through the sky: at night the people estimated time from position and phase of the moon, or observing constellations visible at a particular time. In 1500 bc the egptians had abandoned star clocks (started 4000 ya) in favor of measuring time with the flow of water through an opening of a particular size: water clocks work even when the sky is cloudy. Marking the seasons: stonehenge served both as an astronomical device and as a social and religious gathering place. In the americas, one of the most sepcatcular structures was the templo mayor in the aztec city of.