mans have been fascinated by the concept of time for mi 1 The Egyptians were some of the first people to divide daytime and ninttime stages into smaller units. Long before wristwatches and alarm ocks, they invented a tool known as a "merkhet, meaning instrument of knowing which was an important milestone in our quest to understand and measure the passage of time.
The design of the merkhet was rather simple 2 A piece of rope or string with a small weight called a plumo bob was attached to its end, in order to use the tool effectively, two people with a comprehensive knowledge of astronomy had to stand one opposite the other at a distance of two or three metres. Each one held a merkbet. The first person held the market at arm's length so that the plumb bob would hang vertically, and aligned it with the North Star. The second person sat between the first person and the North Star holding their market in such a way so that it was aligned to the first person's merket. The space between them would create a perfect line running from north to south: a meridian 3 By studying the angle of the crossings and the intervals between the stars rising and setting, they were able to calculate the time of the night in essence, the stars rotation around the North Star functioned in the same way that an hour hand rotates around the centre of a modern day clock
Read the text and complete the gaps (1-6) with the correct sentence (A-G). . One sentence is extra.
A Until its creation, people had very limited means of telling the time.
B However, the use of the merkhet has been confirmed
C It is believed that our cunosity first took root in ancient Egypt D In fact, it provided such
precise measurements that it may even have been used in the construction of the great pyramids at Ga
E Once the meridian was established they observed the stars crossing while rising or setting
F It was an L-shaped bar made from wood, metal or bone. G Modem astronomers claim there is still a lot to be learnt from this technology.
