What scientific basis did people have for believing the earth was flat?

Question

I know why we now know it is round. But did people have some scientific reason for believing it was flat or was it just superstition?

Answer 1

There was little science behind the belief. Although it originated in ancient greece, the belief did not last very long before round earth hypotheses, and eventual data to prove these hypothesis existed. It was perpetuated by some Christians, who had a hard time reconciling the fact that there were lands elsewhere in the world that they did not know about. But, for the most part, people believed that the earth was spherical. In fact, it is a common misconception that Columbus and his crew actually thought that the earth was flat and were afraid of traveling off the edge. There's no evidence of such a belief.

You can think of it this way: it was an early hypothesis that scientific method later disproved.

Answer 2

The superstition of the earth being flat came from the sailors. It was because when they sailed out the water appeared to just end. That is why ships stayed as close to the land as possible. Sailors truly did believe they would fall off if they took the ships out to "end" of the water into the nothingless. This is why Columbus took his famous voyage, he did not believe the world was flat and therefor thought that if he traveled West from Spain he would land in China with a much shorter voyage then making the zig zag around Africa and Australia, which took a very long time. Everyone thought he was a fool and that he would fall off the ends of the world.

Answer 3

The story the Columbus believed the earth was round while most others of his era thought it was flat is a complete myth, invented by 19th century historians. The world was generally known to be round since the time of Aristotle.

It is true that some medieval scholars thought the world was flat, but their beliefs were based on Biblical scripture, not on science.

Answer 4

Their own scientific basis for the flat earth theory was based on their only observation of earth ... from ground-level, the surface does indeed appear to be flat.

Of course we later found out that the earth is indeed round. As man began to explore more and more of the world, and some observed that as ships sailed off into the distance, they would appear to "sink" as they went over the horizon, so it had then be theorized that the earth must be round, well ... spherical, anyway.

Answer 5

None, the Greeks and Romans knew it was round, they 'forgot' because the bible says the earth is flat and contradicting the bible was a good way to wind up dead til a few centuries ago. The Israelites weren't ever a truly seafaring people, otherwise they'd have noticed the truth.

A guy who lived in Greece at the tail end of the third century b.c. named Eratosthenes made a rough calculation of the earth's circumference. He was off, but only by just a little.

Answer 6

Science is only as good as the instruments and technology of the time. When the Earth was perceived to be flat mariners and travellers believed their eyes. When you look at the horizon, it appears as the end of the earth. This was perceived as exactly this... the END of the world, hence the Earth was thought by many to be FLAT. It was once thought that the sun travelled around, or orbited the Earth. and not (as we now know) the other way around.

Answer 7

Their basis was that as far as people had traveled on the ground they had never gone around to where they were before. The earth look flat from ground level so there was no reason to question that it wasn't. As far as people knew, the ocean went on forever.

It's easy for you to accept that the earth is round because you've seen pictures of it from space. You've probably been in a plane and seen the curvature of the earth for yourself. People in the past did not have that advantage.

Answer 8

Well, quantitative analysis wasn't around right away. People looked at their surroundings, taking them at face value. people who lived at the coast knew for centuries that the earth is round. Basically there evidence wasn't scientific, people just never thought of the earth as being anything besides flat.

Answer 9

Basically it appeared flat in view, which is true, so they believed it. Your eyes can only so far that you can't see a true bend in the earth (excluding hills and valleys). Look and see with your own eyes.

What was funny was sailors, for a while, often feared falling off the end of the earth.

Also this "Flat" theory was often supported by religious means. You know how important religion was back then...

Answer 10

As an object was viewed from further and further away it seemed to get smaller and finally, if one moved far enough away, the object seemed to disappear, which appeared to be the result of the object falling off the earth, which would be the case if the earth were flat. Therefore, they reasoned, it must be flat.