[...]... flourished, the cities prospered Ideas that changed the world 15 Fragments of Euclid's Elements Why is it said that geometry fired Man's i magination? The word geometry means to 'measure the earth,' and geometry is the science of shape and size of things Geometry bega n with a practical need to measure shapes It is believed that geometry first became important when an Egyptian pharaoh wanted to tax farmers... and together this was called the m usic of the spheres Centuries later, Coper­ nicus declared that the Earth was not the centre of the u niverse Instead, it circled a round the sun This theory was very i mportant because it was the stepping stone to the theory that space went on forever and was infinite Tell Me Why Why was the d iscovery of zero India's great contribution to civilization? The word... proper lamps with handles These lamps used olive or nut oil 30 Tel l Me Why by their peers, and g ua ra nteed the civil rights of the individual One of the most i mportant rules established by the Magna Carta is habeas corpus, which means 'Do you have the body?' in Latin This rule means that the govern ment can't keep people in jail secretly The government has to tell the public if someone is being held... prominent objects in the sky -the Sun, the Moon, and the five major planets visible to the naked eye The Jews also adopted a seven-day cycle, based on the Cut time it took the Lord to create one day from the week the u niverse The Romans thought of a week as the 8 days between market days But after the Romans adopted the Julian calendar in the first century AD, the seven-day week g radually came i nto use,... and cheaper As a result, glass became available to the common people for the first time Today, glass is u sed for various kinds' of bottles and utensils, m irrors, windows and many other things Ideas that changed the world �7 Why did the invention of paper change the world? Since the invention of writing, people had been trying to come up with something to write on that was easy and cheap to make Paper... nfluenced the western world for centuries Ideas that changed the world Socrates Plato and Aristotle - A Painting 23 What were the early t heories about the planetary system 1 ROADS: The Way Forward Great roads were built in the ancient civiliza­ tions Theywere not tarred it is true, but they were nevertheless i mpressive The Persian Royal Road built in 3500 Be was 2857 kms long The Silk Road remained the world' s... i n that he transformed the study of astronomy when he proposed that our solar system is heliocentric­ which means centred around the Sun­ and not geocentric, or centred around the Earth Ideas that changed the world 35 Why were Galileo and the telescope, tools for scientific change? Galileo was a brilliant astronomer, physicist, mathe­ matician, philosopher, and inventor He built on the work of others... Ganymede They were later renamed the Galilean satellites in honour of Galileo himself Galileo's view of the u niverse differed strongly with the beliefs of the Church at the time He even spent the final years of his life under house arrest Galileo helped open the eyes of the world to a new way of thinking about the solar system and astronomy 36 Calileo Wow! There's a spot on the moon o o Tel l M e Why. .. metal tube with an open end to launch bits of metal and crockery at high speed These were the first g u n s Gradually, the guns became heavier, and they were mounted on wheels to make the very first canons Ideas that changed the world 29 Why i s the i m portant? King John signing Magna Carta Mag na Carta King John was an English king who was not a good ruler at all In fact, he ruled so badly that the. .. of wide spans The Pantheon is still considered to be the world' s largest unreinforced solid -concrete dome The aqued ucts and baths of Ancient Rome were also renowned for their excellence i n construction Another impressive achievement was the multi­ story apartment blocks called i nsu lae 26 Tel l Me Why Why was the i nvention of glass i m portant? Glass is an i norganic solid material that is usually