who first discovered and proved the earth was round, not flat? How was it proven?

Answer 1

As far as we can tell nobody ever considered the world to be flat. The very earliest writings always describe the world as a dome or an upturned bowl or as a pile of soil or similar descriptions. So we can assume that people never thought the world was flat. That makes sense since anyone who climbed even a small mountain could see quite clearly that the world curves away on all sides. As a result they assumed it was shaped like a dome, with their location near the top.

I guess what you meant to ask is when people first started to think the world was spherical. We don't know the answer to that question. We know that by the time we get to Hellenistic Greece it seems to have been universally accepted that the world was a sphere. Given their advanced astronomy it seems almost certain that the Persians had figured out that the Earth was spherical. After all they saw that the moon was spherical.

So the person who first discovered that the world was round was probably some Persian or Babylonian astrologer 3, 000 years ago.


>>>How was it proven?

I guess the person who 'proved' the world was round was Ferdinand Magellan, who was the first man to sail around the world. That was the first time it was conclusively proven that the world was round.

Note that he never disproved that a belief in flat Earth was wrong. Neither Magellan nor anybody he ever met believed the Earth was flat. All Europeans knew it was round. Other cultures may have thought it was a dome but nobody had ever thought it was flat.

____Those who have answered “Columbus” are completely wrong. Everybody knew that the world was a sphere by the time Columbus was born, and everybody already knew that you could sail west to get to India.

All that Columbus did was underestimate the size of the world. He calculated that it would be faster to sail wets to get to India than to sail East. Of course he was completely wrong. But the point is that he and everybody else had long since accepted that the world was spherical.

Do US schools still teach the myth that Columbus proved the world was round? Or did you pick that 'fact' up from watching cartoons?

Answer 2

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here we go..... you have to do a lot of reading....:-) Answer Now that we have access to space, the easiest way to prove the Earth is spherical is to leave it and view it from a distance. Astronauts and space probes have done just that. Every picture of Earth ever taken shows only a circular shape, and the only geometric solid which looks like a circle from any direction is a sphere. One of the oldest proofs of the Earth's shape, however, can be seen from the ground and occurs during every lunar eclipse. The geometry of a lunar eclipse has been known since ancient Greece. When a full Moon occurs in the plane of Earth's orbit, the Moon slowly moves through Earth's shadow. Every time that shadow is seen, its edge is round. Once again, the only solid that always projects a round shadow is a sphere. Answered by: Paul Walorski, B.A., Part-time Physics/Astronomy Instructor This is a question that has been asked for many years, and there are some very intuitive, and some not-so-intuitive answers. To start with... there's a horizon, meaning that the surface that one is observing from is not an infinite plane. On the clearest of days, the only restriction to one's range of sight is the horizon. There can be two explanations for this - one, that the Earth at some point just stops, as if you were looking off the edge of a table. The other is that the Earth is round. Hundreds of years ago, before the invention of the compass or sextant, precise navigation for ships was difficult, even with the stars. Ships that ventured past sight of land were often lost, and thus it was generally believed that the world simply *stopped* at the end of the horizon. With the invention of the compass, and improved map-making, people began to dare more, and with the return of Columbus from his trans-Atlantic voyage, the concept of the Earth as flat was shattered. Further proof of the Earth being round came after the voyage of Columbus. When Newton discovered and measured the force of gravity, that number could then be tested anywhere the theory was known. Since the force of gravity is roughly the same everywhere on the globe, it could be surmised that the Earth must be spherical. If the Earth were not round, whole hemispheres would have different atmospheric pressure and significantly different sea levels. Also, pictures taken of the Earth in the last 50 years have proved absolutely conclusively that the Earth is round. These are just the arguments that don't require much physics knowledge to explain, there are others that are more technical, but I think that the simplest arguments are the best. Answered by: Frank DiBonaventuro, B.S., Physics grad, The Citadel, Air Force officer There are a multitude of methods in which any one can prove that the earth is a sphere. These are the most common. You can launch a rocket to a high altitude and take pictures of the earth (which various government agencies and private groups have already done thousands of times in the past), but that isn't the most practical way. Pictures and videos taken by orbiting satellites and space stations are certainly the most definitive proof that the earth is a sphere. But if you're not convinced, read on... You can also observe, with binoculars, ships slowly 'sinking' below the horizon as it sails farther and farther out to the ocean, then watch them come back. They certainly didn't fall off the edge of the earth! You can also sail or fly around the world. The Greeks discovered that the earth is round by observing lunar eclipses (i.e. when the earth blocks the sun from the moon, casting its round shadow on the moon's surface). Another method is simultaneously measuring the length of the shadows cast by identical poles perpendicular to a flat surface that is tangential to the earth's radius at various, distant locations. If indeed the earth is round, then the shadows should all vary in length from one distant location to another, which means that the angle at which the parallel rays of sunlight struck each pole varied from one location to another. (recall the alternate-angles theorem from Geometry class) If the earth is flat, then the lengths of all the shadows should be identical when measured simultaneously, since all rays of sunlight that strike the earth are parallel. However, they are not identical, but in fact, varies in such a way that the angles indicate a spherical surface. (This was one of the earliest methods to determine the radius of the earth) Also, keep in mind the 24 hour time zones. When it is noon in Hawaii, it is approximately midnight in the Middle East and vice versa. How can it be noon and midnight simultaneously? It is certainly impossible with a flat earth and a sun millions of times more massive. If I were a billionaire and physically fit, then proving to you the earth is round would be no problem. I can just take you with me on the space shuttle and we'll watch with our own eyes

Answer 3

Monuments and memorials, modern neighbourhoods, correct local flavoring it's this that Washington, DC is; a location unlike every other; just like this page hotelbye . Washington it's your home away from home with free museums and America's entrance yard. Washington is recognized around the world as a symbol of the United States. Here, the place you can't skip is the Capitol. Capitol may be the seat of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The huge dome, based on the dome of St. Peter's in Rome, stands apart especially other Washington buildings. Like Washington itself, the creating has developed over time since the central part was developed between 1793 and 1812. The last addition, in 1958-62, enlarged the main façade where presidents get the oath. On another side, a marble terrace offers beautiful opinions on the mall and the city. The inner is resplendent with frescoes, reliefs, and paintings, specially the rotunda under the great cast-iron dome with a threshold painting by Constantino Brumidi and big paintings of displays from American record on the walls.

Answer 4

People still believe the Earth is flat.
If the North pole is the center and magnetic north is is always the center of the earth, Magellan and Columbus could have sailed around the world, thinking they were going in a straight line while following east to west.
The only way to prove 100% is if you could also cir-***-navigate North to south as well but that s never been done.

Answer 5

The earth looks flat: from the ground; along railway lines eg Cambridge to London; it looks flat from planes flying across vast areas; seas and oceans are flat and all NASA images are edited. No pictures of a spherical earth have to date been taken or released by any space agency. The lenses of cameras make images look round. Aeroplanes ascending point upwards, those descending point downwards. Those flying steadily at about 500 miles per hour, fly flat ie parallel to the earth or ground below. Thus when you observe an aeroplane flying across the sky from point A to point B, it is "cruising" flat, horizontal, with the nose neither up nor down. Aeroplanes should continuously point downward as they fly round a spherical earth but they don't. Neither do sky scrapers lean away when observed from a great distance. Many practical tasks are completed by assuming that the earth is flat.

Answer 6

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RE:
who first discovered and proved the earth was round, not flat? How was it proven?

Answer 7

One of the first western models of the Earth that wasn't flat was that of the greek thinker Anaximander (610 B.C. - 546 B.C.). He thought the Earth was a cylinder. However Ancient Greeks knew the earth was round as early as the 6th century B.C. In 230 B.C., Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the Earth with great precision. He did this by measuring, on the same day, the difference between the lengths of two shadows of two objects in different places and the distance between those two places.

In his book "On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres", Copernicus described the simple logic behind how the Ancinet Greeks knew the Earth was round. If you watch a tall masted ship sail away, you will note that the bottom of the ship will disappear over the horizon before the top. Also if you travel north or south, you will notice that the stars change position (they move southward in the sky as you travel north and northward in the sky as you travel south).

The argument of Earth's roundness was settled once and for all by Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe (only 18 of the original crew survived the jouney, Magellan not being one of them).

Answer 8

The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan discovered a route around South America into the Pacific Ocean.
Magellan died during the voyage, but one of his captains, Sebastian del Cano, continued sailing west until he reached Europe.
This was the first voyage around the world and it proved that the Earth was round.

Answer 9

Aristotle

500 BC: Pythagoras proposed a spherical earth purely on aesthetic grounds

Aristotle (384-322 BC) also proposed a spherical earth on geometric grounds, but backed up his assertion with physical evidence:
Ships disappearing over the horizon appear hull-down in the water.
Travelers going south see southern constellations rise higher above the horizon.
Shadow of the earth on the moon during a lunar eclipse is round.
Aristotle's demonstration was so compelling that a spherical Earth was the central assumption of all subsequent philosophers of the Classical era (up to ~300 AD).

He also used the curved phases of the moon to argue that the Moon must also be a sphere like the Earth.

Answer 10

We were always taught in school it was some Egyption some time before Christ was even born. I dont recall exactly but I do recall how he proved it.

He took sticks and placed them in the ground miles apart and then observed the shadow they casted upon the ground at the exact same time of day. But noticing the difference he not only was able to figure the world was round but using basic math took a guess at the size of the planet and was very close.

Like many things the secret was lost in time. Columbus was not the first he was simply one of the first willing to risk his life and the life of his crew to prove it. His motivation was money, not proving the world was round. He was trying to reach the far east (Indonesia and China) by sailing west not east around Africa.

In fact when he found the new world he at first thought he found the far east and later found out that he discovered new lands.

Hence he died a criminal and poor. By the time magellen set out to sail around the world it was already a well know fact the world was round.

Many knew this for centuries but the catholic church said such talk was heresy and even killed those that claimed the world was round.

So as one answer stated the very first person to figure it out is most likely lost in time.

Answer 11

Earatosthenes measured the circumfrence of the Earth. On June 21 2200 years ago. In Alexandria Egypt. He had to make two measurements of the angles made by shadows at two different locations. Syene and Alexandria. If the Earth was flat.Then, there would be no shadows cast by both sticks at different locations. Given that the Sun is overhead at noon. But, there was a shadow cast at Alexandria at noon. While there was no shadow cast at Syene. That can only happen to a planet if the shape is round. So a helper helped him measure the distance between Alexandria and Syene (800km). From the shadow lenght in Alexandria,the angle A can be measured. But,from simple geometry if two parallel straight lines are transected by a third line,the alternate interior angles are equal. Angle B equals angle A. So,by measuring the shadow lenght in Alexandria,Eratosthenes concluded that Syene was A = B = 7 (seven degrees is (7deg/360 deg) or1/50th the circumfrence of the Earth ) away on the circumfrence of the Earth. Eight hundred kilometers * 50 is 40,000 km. So,that's the circumfrence of the Earth.He was the first person to measure a planet.