“In the sciences, the authority of thousands of opinions is not worth as much as one tiny spark of reason in an individual man.” — Galileo Galilei.

The first LUMS Math Circles of 2023 was titled "First steps of the Cosmic distance ladder" by Dr. Rizwan Khalid and Dr. Sarmad Abbasi. The session was full of exciting calculations using the idea of a cosmic ladder. The cosmic distance ladder is the succession of methods by which astronomers determine the distances to celestial objects. Dr. Rizwan and Dr. Sarmad astonished kids by explaining how the earth's radius can be computed by considering its motion around the earth. They also explained how the distance between Earth and the sun could be computed using basic geometrical techniques.

Our participants learned about different astronomical units and how they help in computing sizes and distances between celestial objects. In another exciting example, the instructors informally explained the idea of parallax and applied it to a solar eclipse to find the size of the sun.

Here are some highlights from the event:

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Instructors: