Timeflash

800

How science is made useful

Muslim people use prayer rugs to pray on while worshipping their believe. They pray 5 times a day and have according to their rites to bend towards Mecca.

Below is a rug that illustrates that science can help with exactly that by translating science into what people can understand.

Into the carpet a sort of compass is woven to determine what direction Mecca would be. This could not be possible without knowledge of navigation, and for that you need mathematics. It is exactly that science that flourished in the Persian region. The most known figure is Al-Kwarizmi .

photo courtesy of Prof. Tim Bergin(1)(2)
(American University)

Looking at the rug you can see the compass is in the very center (the dot indicates north); surrounding the compass is a dial which goes from 0 to 360 degrees;
Accompanying this rug is a little booklet in which you can look up the azimuth in the booklet (for example 140) and use the dial to align the rug (140 degrees from true north). (1)

It is not sure when the habit of weaving such rug came into vogue. ( we will find out later ) But it nicely illustrates how science can be used for practical purposes.