Sunday, June 7, 2009

Accidental Astronomy

Today I was researching a math intervention curriculum when all of the sudden my computer started talking. I only had two browsers open, but it still took me a minute to locate it. I listened to the words as I tried to find the source:

...the hercules globular cluster, which is also called M13. It is Called M13 because this object is the 13th of Charles Messier's 1764 catalog of celestial objects.

Really? I never took an astronomy class in college, and right now I have no regrets about that. This has to be one of the six most uninteresting things I've learned all year. I say this even after now knowing that Charles Messier was not the discoverer of this cluster.* Being that 2009 is the international year of astronomy (don't worry. I just found that out too) I will provide you with the link so you too can hear the video.

If the video is no longer there you can read about the focal points of the math intervention program. I'm sure that has to be at least equally as stimulating.

*M13 was actually discovered 50 years earlier by Edmund Halley.

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