REVIVING ERATHOSTENES

Abstract

As part of the commemorations of the International Year of the Physics and having as its main objective to introduce students to the scientific method, the Rio de Janeiro Planetarium Foundation, in partnership with many institutions of Brazil and Europe, coordinated the activity "Reviving Eratosthenes" whose objective was the determination of the Earth´s circumference.  We used the famous procedure adopted by Eratosthenes more than 2000 years ago, with some adaptations.  This work considers and analyzes the method used by us, aiming the application in schools. The use of  places in different meridians allows a better understanding of the abstract concepts such as geographic coordinate and time zones. We obtained reasonably precise results, which improve for pairs of distant  cities. Finally, one of the most important conclusions achieved by the students involved is the importance of the cooperation (international in this case) to solve problems.