BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Columbus and the Flat Earth Myth

Doesn't everyone know that in the 15th century people thought the Earth was flat? And that brave Christopher Columbus sailed westward from Spain to get to Asia to show that the Earth was round? Once I'd have answered 'Yes" to both of these questions, but it turns out that they are myths.

Columbus and the Flat Earth Myth

Here's a video giving a simplified version of How Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the Earth.

Gossouin de Metz was a 13th century priest and poet, author of Imago Mundi (Image of the World). He wrote his epic poem in Latin, for many centuries the language of the Church, scholars and educated people. The poem was about creation, the Earth and the Universe. In this illustration from Imago Mundi two men set off in opposite directions on a round Earth and walk until they meet again.

It appears that there is still a Flat Earth Society. Though I do wonder if it's still a serious organization in these days of satellites and astronauts. You often see sets of clocks telling the time in different major cities. Here is a cartoon showing the flat Earth version.

Great article, Mona. Myths are created as you mentioned - look at the myths about George Washington created by Parson Weems.

The Earth is flat says an American sports personality.

This could be someone's idea of a joke, but it's getting really hard to tell these days. Over 2000 years ago Aristotle set out evidence for a spherical Earth & Eratosthenes calculated its size. All of this was based on what you could observe or measure then.

By now it's dead easy to observe that the Earth is a spheroid, as are all of the other Solar System bodies over a certain mass. People fly long distances in various directions over it all the time. Airlines, keen to maximize their profits, send their planes on great circle routes because these represent the shortest distances between two points on a sphere - but not on a flat surface. Astronauts look down on the Earth, space missions have photographed it, and there are satellites both in polar orbits and equatorial orbits.

And best of all, if you have the money, you don't have to be a physicist, an astronomer or a cartographer. You can go and look for yourself. Has anybody seen the edge?

I saw that yesterday. That made me think of the athlete (baseball or basketball i think) that went with Jimmy Kimmel in a museum because he thinks that Dinosaurs never existed but he believes that mermaids could exist, at first since this is Kimmel I thought it was a skit or another one of his pranks on us but in the comments people who follow that team said that he truly believe that, he does not want to believe the facts and proof but is open minded about mermaids .

It is very pathetic that in 2017 people still believe those theories (i think im too nice saying these are theories)!

I have a friend who is a christian and she refuses to read anything about evolution because she believes that if her brain realises that it is true then in her mind she thinks it will mean that she will deny her god then end up in hell.

Hello Mona and Aristotle and all -

Here is a 100-word story I wrote to make you smile!
...............................................................
Viva the Flat-Earth Society

“At last, you see things my way.”
“And what way is that?”
“Well, you know, that the world is actually round and not flat.”
“It’s flat and you know it! Don’t be a fool, you’re exasperating, always trying to hide sense behind nonsense.
“No I am not, unless you like being exasperated. The world is round or spheroid if you like, but it’s definitely not flat.”
“Don’t be daft, tell me, what do you see outside, a flat field or a spheroid one?
“It’s flat of course but that doesn’t mean the world is flat!
“Of course it does.”
...............................................................

Tee Hee,

Cheers

Lestie, your little story did make me smile. People tend to generalize from their experience, however limited it is. As in "My great aunt Matilda smoked 2 packs a day and she lived to be 102, so smoking can't be bad for you. It's probably good for you."

If you know cats, this feline takedown of the flat Earth notion will probably give you a little laugh.

Mona, I think they all knew the earth was not flat. The Vikings had been sailing te North Sea, Greenland, and down the coast of Canada probably for a long time. They just didn't realize how large the earth was and thought that the land mass was the outer regions of Asia.