Why did people in the past think that the world was flat?

Answer 1

In Medieval times few experts believed that the Earth was flat.

"In fact, few at the time of Columbus’s voyage, and virtually no sailors or navigators, believed this. Most agreed Earth was a sphere. This had been the general opinion of ancient Greek science, and continued as the standard opinion (for example of Bede in "The Reckoning of Time") until Isidore of Seville misread the classical authors and stated the Earth was flat, inventing the T and O ["Terrae Orbis" EVT] map concept. This view was very influential, but never wholly accepted. Knowledge of the Earth's spherical nature was not limited to scientists: for instance, Dante's Divine Comedy is based on a spherical Earth. Columbus put forth arguments based on the circumference of the sphere. Most scholars accepted Ptolemy's claim the terrestrial landmass (for Europeans of the time, comprising Eurasia and Africa) occupied 180 degrees of the terrestrial sphere, leaving 180 degrees of water."

"Navigational hypotheses" in "Christopher Columbus", Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus#Navigational_hypotheses

"In early Classical Antiquity, the Earth was generally believed to be flat. Greek philosophers from that time period were prone to form conclusions similar to those of Anaximander, who believed the Earth to be a short cylinder with a flat, circular top. It is conjectured that the first person to have advocated a spherical shape of the Earth was Pythagoras (6th century BC), but this idea is not supported by the fact that most presocratic Pythagoreans considered the world to be flat. Eratosthenes, however, had already determined that the earth was a sphere and calculated its rough circumference by the third century B.C. "

"By the time of Pliny the Elder in the 1st century, the Earth's spherical shape was generally acknowledged among the learned in the western world. Ptolemy derived his maps from a curved globe and developed the system of latitude, longitude, and climes. His writings remained the basis of European astronomy throughout the Middle Ages, although Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (ca. 3rd to 7th centuries) saw occasional arguments in favor of a flat Earth."

"The modern misconception that people of the Middle Ages believed that the Earth was flat first entered the popular imagination in the nineteenth century, thanks largely to the publication of Washington Irving's fantasy "The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus" in 1828."

"Flat Earth", Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_earth

"Unfortunately his classical learning failed him when it came to world geography; he misread his sources to say that the Earth was flat, inventing the T and O map concept, as it is now known. For several centuries this nearly came to replace the traditional view that the earth was round, as stated for example by Bede in his "The Reckoning of Time"."

"Etymologiae" in "Isidore of Seville", Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isidore_of_Seville#Etymologiae

Answer 2

Way back in ancient Greek days, centuries B.C. the world was pictured as a ball held up on the shoulder of the God Atlas. Way back in those days, about 600 B.C. if I remember correctly, A Greek mathematician by the name of Aerostophenes ( or something like that ) measured the world, and missed the actual measurements by a couple hundred miles. Due to poor measuring tools.
The flat world idea came out in the late fourteen hundreds when Cloumbus was talking about a new and shorter route to the Orient. The established shippers knew that if a shorter route was found, it would ruin they're established trade, so they tried to convince the King and Queen that it was dangerous to send ships out beyond the edge of the earth.
They knew better just by watching a ship disappear over the horizon, first the hull then the masts.

Answer 3

The idea come from Cosmas a 6th century geographer whose treatise Topographia Christiana (c. 535-547; "Christian Topography") contains one of the earliest and most famous of world maps. In this treatise, Cosmas tried to prove the literal accuracy of the Biblical picture of the universe, asserting in particular that the Earth is flat and trying to refute Ptolemy's concept of a spherical universe.

Cosmas viewed the Tabernacle of Moses as a model of the universe, the Earth being a rectangular plane surmounted by the sky, above which was heaven. In the centre of the plane was the inhabited Earth, surrounded by ocean, and beyond this the paradise of Adam. The Sun, much smaller than the Earth, revolved around a conical mountain to the north. Though Cosmas was scornful of Ptolemy and others who believed in a spherical Earth, his idiosyncratic work is not representative of the general state of cosmographic theory among Christian philosophers of his day and had small influence on later writers.

Answer 4

It depends on WHEN you ask that question. The Flat Earth tribe were at their most powerful during the times of Galileo. Galileo more or less proved the Earth was round in the face of religious hegemony that demanded a flat Earth.

I suppose people believed in a flat Earth because the masses were largely illiterate. This doesn't mean that they were stupid, but that they were not equipped to argue against those who could read. And those who could read didn't always explore beyond their own fairy tales. And why should they have? They held the public in the palms of their hands. And then this jerk, Galileo, wants to claim that the infallible Catholic papacy is wrong! How dare he!

I've always argued with my Rhetoric students that the Earth was physically flat at one time and that it suddenly blew up. I did so because I wanted them to understand the magnitude of such a sudden switch in perspective. Suddenly, literally, the world changed for millions of people all at once.

Answer 5

Because the earth is so big relative to us, we naturally oriented ourselves in the tangent plane we occupied. It is only in vast open spaces like on the ocean that we can see enough of the horizon to detect the gradual curvature of the earth. Add to that the fact the ancients didn't have very formalized ideas on gravity it is hard to conceptualize people being attracted to the center of the earth and not falling off the other side. Keep in mind, however, that educated Greeks knew the earth was a sphere by the first century A.D. at the latest.

Answer 6

Europs did believe the world was round, not flat. They just didnt how large it was. That was started by an american, washington irving. late 1820's as an idea.
Much of what we beleive about Columbus came from that book he wrote.

Columbus from his writings, did state that the world was round, He divided the world into quarters from an idea of using round spheres. Using 90, 180, 270, 360 or 0 degrees, he figured out the relative places of cathay or china. He wasnt a math major, though. He didnt Erosthenes's formula to get an answer of 24,900 or close to it. He guessed about 12,400 or close to it.

he did excel in thinking, though. He knew that sphere has 2 ways of travel around its diameter.

Answer 7

Well, people had only explored so much of the world, and they could only see so far. When you are standing outside, everything pretty much looks flat. When they made maps of the world, they were flat and therefore it was just assumed that the world was flat.
When Columbus sailed to the Americas, everyone thought that he would end up sailing off the end of the world.
Now the whole thing just seems silly, but we have a lot more technology to prove it.

Answer 8

They didn't. People from all over the world have none the world was round for centuries. The Greeks figured it out over two thousand years ago. The Chinese and Meso-americans knew it too. The concept of a flat earth comes largely from Europe, where education (thanks to Catholocism) has traditionally been very poor. But any decently informed person born within the last 1500 years or so that lived in an urban society would know otherwise.

Answer 9

Because people didn't understand the force of gravity. They thought you would fall off a spherical world.

Answer 10

Because it makes sense. Although they had an idea that the world was round by the appearances of lunar eclipses.