Thursday 9.20

[4thJulie]

• Hellenistic Culture
  • Hellenistic Culture - Greek Culture blended with Egyptian, Persian and Indian influences
  • the language that was sued 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 appearance
  • the rulers spent a lot of money and time  into making the city of Alexandria attractice
  • the two greatest attractions were the museum and library
  • it was said that Alexander founded those building because Aristotle had given 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 plaets
  • astronomer name Aristarchus made two very important conclusions:
    • that the sun was bigger than Greece, stating it was 300 times bigger than the earth.(actually is 1.3 million times bigger
    • the planets revolve around the sun. Unfortunately, no one supported this theory and another philosopher stated that Earth was the center. this theory was supported for the next 14 centuries.
• Math and Physics
  • Euclid - was a well known mathematician, also wrote a book. known for writing proofs
  • Archimedes - came up with the value of pi and also explained the law of the lever. He created a pulley to pull heavy objects as well