who was the first person to think the earth was round?

Answer 1

Pythagoras (b. 570 BC) found harmony in the universe and sought to explain it. He reasoned that Earth and the other planets must be spheres, since the most harmonious geometric form was a circle.

Aristotle 384 BC - 322 BC)
also observed that there are stars seen in Egypt and Cyprus which are not seen in the northerly regions." Since this could only happen on a curved surface, he too believed Earth was a sphere "

Plato (427-347BC) also taught his students that Earth was a sphere. If man could soar high above the clouds, Earth would resemble "a ball made of twelve pieces of leather, variegated, a patchwork of colours."


Not exactly first person...but
Great Greek "Noodles" ...
but you've got a good start.

Answer 2

Hard to say, because this stretches back into prehistory. Certain ancient cultures such as the Sumerians and druidic cults in England used astronomical calculations that only really work well if you assume the earth is round, and either rotates on an axis or is orbited by everything else. The earliest recorded instances of a round earth comes from ancient Greece, when philosophers such as Thales openly taught the idea of a round earth around 500 BC, and by around 350 BC, Eratosthenes actually used current knowledge of geometry and trigonometry to estimate the diameter of the Earth (and came astonishingly close, all things considered). Aristarchus observed eclipses of the sun and moon and around 310 BC made the startling and revolutionary claim that the Earth actually orbited the sun... a solid 1800 years before Copernicus, and 1900 years before Galileo got put under house arrest for making the same claim.

Answer 3

Pythagoras (b. 570 BC)

In short:
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Pythagoras found harmony in the universe and sought to explain it. He reasoned that Earth and the other planets must be spheres, since the most harmonious geometric form was a circle.


In more detail:
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The concept of a spherical Earth was espoused by Pythagoras apparently on aesthetic grounds, as he also held all other celestial bodies to be spherical. It replaced widespread belief in a flat Earth:

In early Mesopotamian thought the world was portrayed as a flat disk floating in the ocean, and this forms the premise for early Greek maps like those of Anaximander and Hecataeus.

Other speculations as to the shape of Earth include a seven-layered ziggurat or cosmic mountain, alluded to in the Avesta and ancient Persian writings (see seven climes). In fact, the Earth is an oblate spheroid.

Answer 4

The flat world idea was not shared by all cultures. Most all of the Native American and many of the African communities knew the world was round. I believe most Polynesian cultures also knew it. In the West, a more repressive intellectual environment brought Europeans to the odd notion that the Earth was a plate.

Answer 5

Copernicus.He was burned at the stake by the Catholic Church for heresy.He also said the Earth revolved around the sun.He was the first person in recorded history to have this theory.Another great thinker killed for being right.

Answer 6

http://www.pa.msu.edu/~sciencet/ask_st/071592.html
not Christopher Columbus, the ancient greeks because they figured the moon was round so the earth should be too.

Answer 7

Galileo

Answer 8

I don't recall "the person," but it goes way back into Biblical times. For more info & probably a good, solid answer to ur ?, check out http://www.gotquestions.org

Answer 9

Actually, several of the ancient greeks had it figured out.

Answer 10

it was the greeks in ancient times however Christopher Coloumbus proved it.