Measuring the universe

When we measure the univers, we don't only measure distances, mass, volume, density, temperature can be measured. The Universe also measures the brightness of the stars, the decline, the wavelength and many other magnitudes. Measuring the Universe is complicated. Often the usual units do not serve. Distances, time and forces are enormous and clearly cannot be measured directly. The parallax technique is used to measure the distance to the nearby stars.

It is a question of measuring the angle of the distant objects, the star that is observed and the Earth, at the two opposite points of its orbit around the Sun, for example, in January and July. The diameter of the Earth’s orbit is 300 million kilometers. Using trigonometry you can calculate the distance to the star. This technique, however, is not suitable for distant objects, because the angle is too small and the margin of error is very large.

The brightness of the stars
Brightness (star magnitude) is a measuring system in which each magnitude is 2,512 times brighter than the next. A star of magnitude 1 is 100 times brighter than a star of magnitude 6. The brightest have negative magnitudes. There are only 20 stars of magnitude equal to or less than 1. The weakest star that has been observed has a magnitude of 23.


Declination
Declination is the measure, in degrees, of the angle of an object from the sky above or below the celestial equator. Each object describes an apparent "decline circle". The distance, in hours, from this to the circle of reference (which passes through the poles and the position of the Earth at the beginning of spring) is the ascension of the object. Combining ascension, decline and distance determines the relative position of an object to the Earth.

Generic length measurements in antiquity

·         Elbow: It is a unit of measurement very mentioned in the Bible and one of the first employees in antiquity, when man used parts of his body to make measurements.

·         Hand: This measure is equivalent to the width of the hand.

·         Foot: The foot originally represented the length of a human foot although this unit of measurement was transformed over time into the equivalent of 12 inches in the Anglo-Saxon system.

·         Handspan: is the measurement between the tip of the thumb and the little finger with the extended hand.

·         Breaststroke: this measurement results from extending both arms.

·         Cable: equivalent to about 200 meters and was used to measure the distance between two objects that were not too far away.

·         Inch: As its name suggests, this measure used to correspond to the width of the thumb. Today is equivalent to 2.54 cm. It is an English measure that is widely used today and that is widely used in archaeology. We usually rely on an inch to cm converter to avoid mistakes when we are working with these two types of measurements.

·         Step: it is the resulting measurement between one foot and another when taking a step.

·         Mile: equivalent to about 1000 steps and derives from the expression mille passuum.

The units of measure of foot, handspan and step are taught in the first year of primary education, in the first trimester. It is necessary to teach these units of measurement to students through an active methodology so they can experience it themselves. In this way students acquire this knowledge in a useful way so they can use it on many occasions.

Introduction

This blog corresponds to the subject Didactic of the Measure.

In this I will include different reflections regarding the contents of the subject as a personal diary. In addition, I will include entries on materials for implementation in the classroom, both physical and digital, as well as comments, articles of interest, educational applications for mobile phones that can be used in the classroom, use of digital whiteboards, etc.

I hope that both the process and the final result of the blog will be interesting and useful for my future as a teacher of primary education.

Cecilia Fernández González