Who was the first person to state, with reason, that the Earth is round? What was the evidence to prove this?

kaylofgorons

Eratosthenes. I remember the story going that he observed the angle of light shining into a well. He further observed the angle of the sunlight during daylight and measured the distance to another city. He came impressively close to the circumference of the earth. Apr 27 05, 10:49 AM

TheAlphaWolf

I thought it was aristotle... hm. I'm pretty sure about the story though. He (whoever) read some records from a town south of his on a library that said that at a certain time of year at a certain time of day (noon), they were able to see straight down to the bottom of the well because the sun was directly above it. Whoever noticed that in his town that never happened... so he sent a guy to measure the distance from his town to the other town and through some math and by measuring the shadow of a stick or something, he found out what the circumference was... Apr 27 05, 5:52 PM

gmackematix

Clearly there were reasons for thinking the world was round before self-starving prime-siever Eratosthenes did his famous measurement. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth Apr 27 05, 7:05 PM

robboy

I can't contribute much to this thread, other than being very grateful that the earth is round, but I would like to know what the heck a 'prime-siever' is. I recognize the self-starving bit just fine. Apr 27 05, 7:45 PM

gmackematix

Googling "sieve of Eratosthenes" should tell you all you (don't) need to know. Apr 27 05, 8:20 PM

stageball

People always knew the earth was round. They just thought it was flat. Apr 27 05, 8:27 PM

kaylofgorons

I actually remembered the story and looked up the name in the archives. If the name of the guy is wrong, then both records will need to corrected... Apr 27 05, 10:34 PM

peasypod

Gmack, I think you and I have seen this sort of question fly through here as often as the 'gry' question, but do you remember our little friend with his handy physics book that was always stuck in his lap? Yes. Hammy boy asked this in #41828, and from what I recall, it was a hoot. Without repeating what has been said here I think its safe to agree with gmack on that the concept was around long before Eratosthenes, and I'll add: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_Earth Apr 27 05, 11:12 PM

kaylofgorons

Question did ask "with reason." There's always someone who doesn't get credit for coming up with it first. Apr 28 05, 1:54 PM

TheAlphaWolf

"People always knew the earth was round" lol. exactly. a CIRCLE. he he he Apr 28 05, 8:00 PM

kaylofgorons

People might have figured it out by watching boats sail off the horizon. The boats came back just fine, and water seeks a level plain (easily observable). Some probably said it was just really big waves. :P I'm surprised you brought it up. It would be nice to know what that word for 'circle' could mean, but I wasn't going to bother anyone for it. Apr 28 05, 8:22 PM

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