Hellenistic Culture
- Greek culture blended with Egyptian, persian, and indian influences
- the language that was used was called koine meaning common in greek
- the common language was very important as it allowed for people throughout all of macedonian empire to communicate in some fashion
Alexandria
- the center of the hellenistic culture
- located on western edge of the nile delta
- easy for people throughout the macedonian empire to get to by ship
- booming economy due to all the different customs and items that came to alexandria
- some similarities to ellis island
alexandria's appearence
- the rulers spend a lot of money and time to make alexandria look attractive
- two greatest attractions were the museum and the library
- alexander really wanted those buildings because aristotle gave him a love for learning
- the library was the first true research library, it was used for a gifted group of scholars to do their work
Science and technology
- much of the scientific research that was done in alexandria was very influential
- until the turn of the 16th and 17th century, alexandrian scholars provided most of the scientific information to the west
Astronomy
- the museum contained a small observatory where astronomers could study the stars and planets
- Aristarchus made two very important conclusions:
- that the sun was bigger than greece, stating it was 300 times bigger than the earth (actually 1.3 million times bigger)
- the planets revolve around the sun. no one supported this theory and another philosopher stated earth was the center
math and physics
- euclid-was a well known mathematician, also wrote a book
- Archimedes- came up with the value of pi and explained the law of the lever. he created the pulley to pull heavy objects as well
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