The biography of the ancient Greek mathematician and librarian who measured the circumference of the earth, with an error of only 200 miles, at a time when people didn’t even know for sure the earth was round, using math alone.

Kathy Lasky, Little Brown and co., ©2004, ISBN 0-316-51526-4

Ancient Libraries

The Library at Alexandria was the greatest library on earth for over 1000 years. There were over 700,000 rolls of papyrus in their collection of “books.” You couldn’t take a book out, so a librarian would help you find the scroll you had in mind.

For Rapid Research (click for PDF) it would be great for students to find out everything they can about the following libraries or book collections and write their own “book” of 200-400 words:

1. The Library at Alexandria
2. The House of Wisdom
3. The Library at Ephesus
4. The Library at Constantinople
5. The Burning of the Mayan Books
6. Hitler’s Book Burning
7. The Cordoba Library – Library of Al-Hakam III

Look Like a Math Genius – The 11 X Table

Teach students how to multiply a two-digit number, in their head, faster than a calculator.

43 x 11 = ???

Answer:

• The first number is 4
• The last number is 3
• The middle is their sum = 7
• The answer is 473

Tell them to say it slowly, to impress their friends.

For 8 creative writing ideas, click The Librarian who Measured the Earth to download.