They knew it all along: Shape and size of Earth

originally posted by: Utnapisjtim
a reply to: truehumandna

Hand me a proper boat and a medieval pope or two and an hour's ride out on the open sea. If any of the popes can still "prove" the Earth is flat after I have demonstrated that it indeed is round they can bloody well swim ashore.

if u actually look at the night sky the way it wraps around it looks round. Ancient people actually sailed the world way before mainstream history tells us. I'm sure you seen the ancient maps that were found that had the world mapped out actually showing Antarctic before it was covered in ice.

a reply to: truehumandna

Yes, and Plato saw the Earth as a sphere, as did the Church actually. But Plato also meant the Earth was stationary in the centre of an elaborately worked out clockwork Universe. However, this didn't stop priests and inquisitors and for that matter civic officials or other ecclesiastical or secular authorities to rule out that the Earth was all kinds of things, flat being one of them, even square or half-sphere (don't fall off the edges!). But you wouldn't have to claim round earth to be killed or tortured, they would have natural philosophers and wise men and women scorned and quartered for far less. Often depending on stuff like the weather, if there was a storm somewhere, someone in town with a supposed secret fling with the Devil was to blame. Torches and hayforks.