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Originally posted by LordBucket
reply to post by Daisy-Lola
The ancient Greek mathematician Eratosthenes (276 BC– 195 BC) theorised the world was round and got pretty close to the correct distance around the equator.
If despite his calculation from over 2000 years didnt prove anything to them, well more fool them!
Ok, but have you ever performed those calculations? How is reading in a book that some dead guy allegedly proved something by some method you can't personally reproduce any different than simply reading that something is supposedly true?
Many of the things we believe, we simply take on faith. The world might be round, dinosaurs may have existed, but the mechanism by which we come to believe these things is not rational thought or personal observation.
We simply believe these things because we've been told they're true.
Eratosthenes knew that on the summer solstice at local noon on the Tropic of Cancer, the Sun would appear at the zenith, directly overhead - though Syene was in fact slightly north of the tropic. He also knew, from measurement, that in his hometown of Alexandria, the angle of elevation of the Sun would be 7° south of the zenith at the same time. Assuming that Alexandria was due north of Syene - Alexandria is in fact on a more westerly longitude - he concluded that the distance from Alexandria to Syene must be 7/360 of the total circumference of the Earth. The distance between the cities was known from caravan travellings to be about 5,000 stadia (1 stadion=148.5 m). He established a final value of 700 stadia per degree, which implies a circumference of 252,000 stadia. The exact size of the stadion he used is no longer known (the common Attic stadion was about 185 m), but it is generally believed that Eratosthenes' value corresponds to between 39,690 km and 46,620 km. The circumference of the Earth around the poles is now measured at around 40,008 km. Eratosthenes result is not bad at all
The steps for 'some dead guys' calculations are very straight forward.
I have no doubt in believing in that the experiment works.
Originally posted by Sacrosanct
LordBucket is right. There is no direct evidence (i.e. FIRST HAND evidence) that the earth is round.
Why accept? I have a limited time on this Earth
Originally posted by LordBucket
reply to post by Daisy-Lola
Why accept? I have a limited time on this Earth
Ok. Everyone is entitled to make their own choices. But next time you hear about somebody strapping on explosives and blowing themselves up, don't ask why they did it.
You already know why, and you've approved of the thought process they used to decide it was a good idea.
Originally posted by woodwardjnr
I started it thread about what makes people believe the world is round. Obviouslu we all know the world is round, but it hasn't always been the case, some people were locked up as mad for suggesting such a thing. My thread was to look at how we come to scientific truth's over fanciful myths like creationism.