Mathematics | The Schools' Observatory

Isaac Newton

Occupation

Mathematician, Astronomer, and Physicist

Year born

1643

Research Areas

Optics, maths, motion, gravity

A portrait of Sir Isaac Newton, painted by Godfrey Kneller in 1689. Newton is depicted with long, wavy hair, wearing a dark robe, and has a serious, contemplative expression, reflecting his intellectual stature as a key figure in the scientific revolution

This work by G Kneller is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Johannes Kepler

Occupation

Astronomer, Mathematician, Scientist, Teacher

Year born

1571

Research Areas

Planetary motion, Optics, Geometry

A painting of Johannes Kepler. He is stood with a hand on his hip. There is a table in front of him with parchment papers and a globe placed on it.

Hypatia

Occupation

Astronomer, Mathematician, Philosopher

Year born

Sometime between 350 – 370 AD

Research interests

Geometry, Algebra

Hunt the Asteroids

How do we find asteroids?

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Distances in Space

Distances to objects in space are very, very large. The nearest star (excluding the Sun), Alpha Centauri, is 41.23 trillion km, or 41,320,000,000,000 km!!

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Investigate the Size of a Galaxy

Have you ever wondered how big a galaxy is? They contain millions to billions of stars but what does that really mean for size?

Reading about sizes in a book is one thing, but what if you could make an observation of a galaxy and then measure its size?

Read more about Investigate the Size of a Galaxy

Investigate the Size of a Planet

Have you ever wondered how big each of the planets is? Bigger or smaller than the Earth?

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Measure a Day on Jupiter

You may know that the Earth takes 24 hours to rotate around its axis, but did you know other planets rotate as well? However, they do not all spin at the same rate.

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Measure the Sun's Rotation

You may know that the Earth rotates around an axis, but did you know the Sun does too?

So how long is a solar day? In this activity, you will find out!

Read more about Measure the Sun's Rotation

Measure Mountains on the Moon

Did you know there are mountains on the Moon? How tall do you think they are? Are they higher than mountains on Earth?

Read more about Measure Mountains on the Moon

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