Earth’s circumference to be measured at Jantar Mantar
June 20th, 2012 - 9:32 pm ICT by IANSNew Delhi, June 20 (IANS) With June 21 being the Summer Solstice and the year’s longest day, the Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) here will mark Thursday by measuring the earth’s circumference.
As part of Project Paridhi, SPACE will organise programmes at Jantar Mantar from 9.30 a.m. till 2 p.m.
The participants will be able to take actual measurements of the shadows made by the sun to measure the circumference of the earth as done 2,300 years ago by Greek astronomer Eratosthenes.
The project involves participants taking measurement of shadows at noon, at different places on the same longitude, such as Delhi and Bangalore.
SPACE will partner with astronomers from Kazakhstan, Nepal, Pakistan and other SAARC countries for conducting the Eratosthenes experiment.
Besides Jantar Mantar, SPACE will conduct the experiment at Bal Baharati Public School in Delhi and Gyan Shakti Vidyalaya in Noida.
Apart from the experiment, SPACE has partnered with the Archeological Survey of India to conduct a heritage walk around Jantar Mantar to show how the astronomical observatory was used for calculation of time and position of celestial bodies.
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- Year's shortest day Wednesday - Dec 21, 2010
- Watch autumn equinox at Jantar Mantar Thursday - Sep 21, 2011
- Heritage Walk organized to celebrate National Science Day - Feb 28, 2012
- World Space Week to be observed from Tuesday - Oct 03, 2011
- Delhi celebrates longest day of year with solar fest - Jun 21, 2011
- Solar fest in Delhi on longest day of the year - Jun 20, 2011
- Delhi gears up to watch century's last Venus transit - Jun 05, 2012
- Day and night to be equal Thursday - Sep 22, 2010
- Watch 'Ring of Fire' during Monday's solar eclipse - May 19, 2012
- Day and night to be equally long Saturday - Mar 19, 2010
- Jaipur's Jantar Mantar now a world heritage site - Aug 04, 2010
- Day, night to be equal Monday - Mar 21, 2011
- Watch out for Perseids meteor showers Sunday - Aug 10, 2012
Tags: archeological survey of india, astronomers, astronomical observatory, celestial bodies, circumference of the earth, communicators, different places, eratosthenes experiment, greek astronomer, gyan, heritage walk, jantar mantar, longest day, New Delhi, noida, saarc countries, science popularisation, shakti, solstice, summer solstice