2.5: Contributions to Science
There are also a number of
Jewish
and
Christian
traditions. The Bible’s Old and New Testaments contain numerous astronomical references. The Jewish Bible, or Old Testament, refers to stars, constellations, and eclipses. The Christian New Testament has astronomical references, such as the Star of Bethlehem, denoting the birth of Jesus. The
Greeks
were credited with development of scientific principles, starting around 500 BC. Alexandria, Egypt was a great library and research center that opened around 300 BC, and survived until it was destroyed by fire. A couple of Greeks, to note, included Eratosthenes, who determined Earth’s circumference by measuring the Sun’s shadow at two points on Earth around 240 BC, and Hipparchus, who developed a stellar brightness magnitude scale that is still in use today. There were also a number of significant
Islamic
contributions from around the 8th and 9th Centuries AD. Muslims kept and translated historical records, developed Algebra, and developed many constellation and star names. Some examples of star names still used today are Aldebaran and Algol (Al: “the”). The researchers were not only Muslims, but also included Jews and Christians. Hindus also worked with the team of researchers and indirectly with the Chinese.