Invitation to Join the ERATOSTHENES Experiment
The Eratosthenes experiment March 2026 (https://eratosthenes.ea.gr/) will take place on the March equinox day, Friday the 20th of March (see here).
In 240 B.C., the Greek astronomer Eratosthenes made the first good measurement of the size of Earth. By noting the angles of shadows in two locations on the Summer Solstice, and by performing the right calculations using his knowledge of geometry and the distance between the locations, Eratosthenes was able to make a remarkably accurate calculation of the circumference of Earth. Read the full story here:
https://eratosthenes.ea.gr/
https://eratosthenes.ea.gr/
This year the Balkan Physical Union joins forces with Ellinogermaniki Agogi in organising a repetition of the Eratosthenes experiment for Balkan schools. Hundreds of schools are involved in this activity every year. Schools can perform the experiment in collaboration with another school that shares the same longitude or if no other schools can be found on the same longitude – for schools matchup – schools can consider the existence of a virtual school on the equator with experimental data 0 (shade of a one-meter stick measured at local noon) and conduct the experiment by yourself. Schools that register till Thursday 26th of February 15:00 CET will receive the next day an e-mail with the coordinates of potential matching schools along with the information (email) of their contact persons, so that they can communicate and arrange their match-up during the day of the experiment.
You can register here: https://eratosthenes.ea.gr/
Ellinogermaniki Agogi, in the framework of the Green Deal EU Programme, is introducing in parallel a “green” version of the experiment, by finding the optimal inclination of a small solar panel for maximum energy production during local noon. It is expected that the panel’s inclination during this time will match the latitude of the experiment location. More information is available here: https://eratosthenes.ea.gr/
The website (https://eratosthenes.ea.gr/) includes detailed guidelines and information – along with lesson plans – for interested schools.
The idea to found the Balkan Physical Union was first devised and put in motion by Prof A. Milojevic (Yugoslavia) and Prof. I Ursu (Romania) at the VIII Congress of the Union of Yugoslav Societies of Mathematicians, Physicists and Astronomers (UYSMPA), held in Pristina (Yugoslavia) in Nov. 1985 where the proposal was accepted. The reason leading to the forming of such a non-governmental, non profit scientific organization stemmed from the positive experiences of Scandinavian scientific unions and some other ideas coming from the Mathematical Union.
The first Balkan Physical Union Council meeting was held in Bucharest in 1987, when the Constitution of the BPU was signed by the Balkan National Physical Society delegates from Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Yugoslavia. Turkey’s signature was accepted later.
Welcome to the Official Site of Balkan Physical Union
You can find bellow some of BPU
Activities
- Second Balkan Student Summer School on Quantum Physics New
You can watch the lectures through our channel on YouTube - The BPU Council Meeting Bucharest, July 11, 2025
- Bucharest 2024 Minischool, “Mathematical methods in Gravitation and Cosmology”
- DPG’s Fellowships for early career physicists from Middle and Eastern European countries
- 12th BPU CONGRESS – Bucharest, Romania (8-12 July, 2025)
The 12 BPU Congress will be held in Bucharest, Romania, from July 8 to July 12, 2025. It will be organized by the Balkan Physical Union (BPU) and hosted at the National University of Science and Technology POLITEHNICA Bucharest. - First Balkan student Summer School on Astronomy and Astrophysics
«A child from the Balkans counts the stars» - Between 22-27 April 2024, the Balkan Physical Union will organize at the University of Craiova (UCV), Romania,
the event “UCV-Promotor of the Scientific education in the Balkan Region”.The event is financially supported by CEEPUS and the Ministry of Education from Romania and consists of two parts:– Lectures given within the CEEPUS program RS-1514-04-2324 “Quantum Spacetime, Gravitation and Cosmology”.– The XIV-th edition of the Workshop “QFT and Nonlinear Dynamics”Details and the full program can be found at https://cis01.central.ucv.ro/physics/en/index_en.html - 52nd National Conference on Education in Physics, 13 – 16 June 2024, Sliven, Bulgaria.
- BPO6_First Announcement
- German Physical Society (DPG) – Dr. Karl Mey-Scholarships
- IBWAP 2023
21st International Balkan Workshop on Applied Physics and Materials Science, July 11-14 2023, Constanta, Romania - 5th BALKAN PHYSICS OLYMPIAD 2023
- Bad Honnef Physics Schools
- BPU11 CONGRESS, The Second Announcement
- Ninth Experimental Physics Olympiad (EPO9)
- SEENET-MTP WORKSHOP: BEYOND THE STANDARD MODEL(S) – BW2021
7 – 10 September 2021, Belgrade, Serbia - BPU – EPS Meeting: Joint Meeting of BPU Executive Committee and EPS Committee of European Integration
6 – 8 September 2021 (Belgrade, Serbia) - 3rd Balkan Physics Olympiad – BPO2021 1st Announcement
- International Conference of the Balkan Physical Union – BPU11 CONGRESS
28 August – 1 September 2022 (Belgrade, Serbia) - The SECOND BALKAN PHYSICS OLYMPIAD (BPO2020) (ONLINE!)
October 24-31, 2020, (Craiova, Romania) - The CERN – SEENET-MTP – ICTP PhD School: Computational Methods in Theoretical Physics
24 – 27 September 2020, online (Craiova, Romania) - 18th Panhellenic Conference of Physics
25-27 September 2020 (Eretria, Greece) - 9th World Federation of Physics Competition Congress 2020
- September, 20-24, Ohrid, North Macedonia
- The 8th International Conference on Physics Education in Secondary Schools
27 – 29 March 2020, Aleksinac, Serbia – cancelled - The 20th International Balkan Workshop on Applied Physics and Materials Science – IBWAP 2020
cancelled - The first BALKAN PHYSICS OLYMPIAD (BPO2019)
- Prof. Goran Djordjevic (Nis University, Serbia)
has been elected as President of the Balkan Physical Union at the president election made in Sofia- Bulgaria, August 2018. - Minutes of BPU Council 2018