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Leave it to the clever Greek investigator Eratosthenes to bring it all together with a calculation (and a remarkably accurate one!) about the diameter of the earth, and also the inclination of its axis of rotation to its orbital plane about the sun. Amazing! And later in Medieval Europe, the earth was thought to be flat. What happened? You'll want to check facts and read more on the geodesy ("roundness") of the earth, and a link is provided to the Wikipedia article on exactly that subject.
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EzraWhen Columbus lived, people thought that the earth was flat. They believed the Atlantic Ocean to be filled with monsters large enough to devour their ships, and with fearful waterfalls over which their frail vessels would plunge to destruction. Columbus had to fight these foolish beliefs in order to get men to sail with him. He felt sure the earth was round.
The theory that the earth is round was postulated by Plato, a Greek philosopher. Aristotle later provided observational evidence to prove this theory. Aristotle noted that travellers going south see southern constellations rise higher above the horizon. This was done around 330 BC. The theory was later on confirmed by Pythagoras, a mathematician: the earth was round.
very difficult to name one particular individual. the first serious attempts to combine observation with theory were made by the Greek philosophers - Thales (born 624 B.C.) to Ptolemy (died A.D.180). at a fairly early stage the Greeks rejected the old theory of a flat Earth. Aristotle's conclusions about the shape of the world were not seriously challenged, and in 270 B.C. Eratosthenes of Cyrene managed to measure the diameter of the Earth with surprising accuracy. the value that he gave was better than that used by Columbus, during his voyage across the Atlantic in 1492.
Columbus didn't prove it. Anciant Greeks hypothisied that it was round from 6th century BCE on. As did Plato and Socrates. I suppose it wasn't proven until Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man to enter space, and actually physically see the curve of the earth.
No not at all. It was an Euripian explorer (he didn't prove it but his crew did) that was trying to find America, and ended up going around the world. Talk a bout an extended trip!
Some believe is was the Greek scholar Eratosthenes, who sought and succeeded to prove the earth was spherical over 2000 years ago. Carl Sagan's 'Cosmos' wrote about him and how he accomplished this.
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How did the Guptas figured out the earth was round?
The Gupta Empire astronomers proved the earth was round by studying the moon during a lunar eclipse. They noticed that the earths shadow on the moon was round, meaning that the earth itself was round.
Did most 15th century europeans believe the earth is round or flat?
The ancient Greeks had worked out that the world was round by looking at the shadow that the Earth makes on the moon. Colombus knew it was round.
Was the world flat before?
no the world has always been round. but it was believed that the earth was flat because pioneers never traveled far enough to know then some one was smart enough to realize the earth was round.
What shape did renaissance people think the earth was?
Round. Most people by the time of Columbus did not believe the Earth was flat, despite what some history books will tell you.
Whose voyage proved that the earth really was round?
spanish explorers conquered what two native empires?
