Why Did Ancient Greek Use Of Astronomy

When most people think of Ancient Egypt, they usually think about the pyramids or Cleopatra or mummies. However, most people don’t know that they were devoted astronomers and greatly contributed to our understanding of astronomy today. The Egyptians relied on astronomy and the many tools they created with it for many things throughout their daily lives, including religious purposes and predicting natural events. They created many tools to help them measure and track the movements of the stars and constellations, and came up with many concepts that we still use in today’s society. Their astronomical discoveries are important in today’s society, and even in our everyday lives in a number of aspects. From naming the constellations to time and
One major example of this is having our days be split into 24 hours. Although this is unknown to many, the 24 hour cycle originated from the Ancient Egyptians and their use of astronomy. The Egyptians noted that certain stars such as Sirius and Orion had a very specific pattern of rising, and called them decans. 12 decans would rise a night, so they used them to count the hours - 1 decan signaled an hour. This is evident in our society today - everything is based on the hour system. Whether signaling the end of a class or the beginning of a meeting, the hour system is undoubtedly integral to our society today. In addition to setting up an early system of hours, they also invented shadow clocks and water clocks. Shadow clocks were early versions of what we know today as a sundial. Depending on the length of the shadow, one could tell the time. Additionally, the water clocks, also known as clepsydras, were used to tell time. In order for a clepsydra to work, water passes through a hole in a container into another container, and based on the amount of water that has flowed through the container, the time can be told. This is connected to our use of clocks today - although ours are far more advanced, it all started in Ancient Egypt. Another invention they used was called a merkhet, which means “instrument of knowing”. A merkhet consists of a straight bar with a weighted string hanging off of one end, and it was used to tell time, make astronomical observations, and mark out where buildings should go according to the stars. In fact, the Great Pyramids of Giza are mapped out according to the Orion constellation. However, merkhets have faded from use with the development of better time-telling devices. But, they gave us the knowledge to progress and create other instruments to tell time. In all, we can thank and credit the Ancient Egyptians for several of our