Columbus crew was worried about falling off a flat earth.what evidence do we have that the earth is spherical.

Question

what was columbus thinking.what can we learn and how do we know that the earth is spherical or like a ball.

Answer 1

Because of the pictures from space that have been taken of the Earth...
The fact that you can sail AROUND the Earth....
There is a centrifugal force, that makes water on the north hemisphere turn counter clockwise, while the southern hemisphere water will turn clockwise...
When you are in the middle of the ocean, and see land just on the horizon, as you get closer, the land seems to grow... Of course it is not growing, you are just nearing the crest of line of sight.
CyberNara

Answer 2

It has been known since ancient times not only that the earth is spherical, but also how large it is. The shadow of the earth cast on the moon during a lunar eclipse was the early giveaway; nowadays you can travel a few hundred miles east or west and notice the change in time of sunrise and sunset. The first measurement of the size of the earth was done by Eratosthenes, then curator of the great library at Alexandria, about 250 BC. When traveling to Syene [now Aswan] in the south of Egypt, he noticed that at midsummer the sun illuminated the bottom of a well, so was directly overhead. Back home, that did not happen. He measured the angle of the sun at Alexandria, and also the distance between the towns, and came up with a good answer. (We don't know how good, because the size of his measuring unit has not survived.)

Answer 3

You don't need a space ship. Just get on a plane and you can see the curvature of the earth. Isn't it a myth that columbus and his crew thought the world was flat? Think sailors were a bit smarter than that. The whole idea rests on the horizon being the edge of the world. Plainly, the horizon is at a different point depending on your distance and perspective. One thing history tells us is that people are pretty good at observation!

Answer 4

Hermannus Contractus (1013–1054) was among the earliest Christian scholars to estimate the circumference of Earth with Eratosthenes' method. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the most important and widely taught theologian of the Middle Ages, believed in a spherical Earth; and he even took for granted his readers also knew the Earth is round.[27] Lectures in the medieval universities commonly advanced evidence in favor of the idea that the Earth was a sphere.[28] Also, "On the Sphere of the World", the most influential astronomy textbook of the 13th century and required reading by students in all Western European universities, described the world as a sphere.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth

Picture from a 1550 edition of: "De sphaera mundi" (On the Sphere of the World). The most influential astronomy textbook of the 13th century show a round earth.
See in

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sacrobosco-1550-B3r-detail01.jpg

Answer 5

One of the first positive proofs the earth was curved came from sailors who observed that a distant ship on the horizon disappeared hull first, then the lower masts, then the topmost masts. Besides all the scientific evidence amassed over several hundred years, images from space show the earth as a spherical planet.

Answer 6

whilst earth strikes the completed device strikes. the earth is traveling at this way of great velocity in area yet you do no longer experience it . working example if a helicopter is status in air for an hour it in no way takes place that the city on which it is status strikes away using rotation of earth and a clean city comes under it. it is because of the fact the completed device is shifting.

Answer 7

Images from space. Not to mention actually being able to see the bend of the earth while at sea, at the top of mountains, in the desert...

Answer 8

satellite photos and the proof of the many people that have gone around the world (and have not fallen off) by air, outer space, land, and water

Answer 9

pictures from space... and Columbus' crew only had maps, not globes or pictures from space, maps.

Answer 10

Pictures from space kind of explains it all.