Climbing the Cosmic Distance Ladder: Maths, History and Astronomy

Follow in the footsteps of ancient astronomers as they sought to understand and predict the movements of celestial bodies. Learn how these ancient ideas and observations were used during the scientific revolution to gain an increasingly accurate and detailed view of the solar system's layout, size and movements. Explore how the principle of parallax combined with new technologies to shed light on the distances to the nearest stars. Sit alongside 19th Century astronomers as they gradually came to understand the true scale of the universe, producing compelling evidence for the existence of separate galaxies spread across unimaginably large distances. This workshop intersperses short historical overviews with mathematical problems for you to solve in your own time. Students will be encouraged to work through each step of the 'cosmic distance ladder' themselves, with full solutions being provided at the end of each puzzle. The level of maths required is covered by the higher end of the GCSE maths syllabus, making use of multiplication, division, trigonometry, rearranging of formulae and the negotiation of various distance units. The emphasis of this workshop is on attempting to imaginatively inhabit historical worldviews from the distant past. We will meet a range of compelling historical characters and seek to understand what it took for them to make these huge leaps in understanding, challenging paradigms and received wisdom.