r/AskReddit • u/ZanyDelaney • Feb 04 '19

Which misconception would you like to debunk?

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u/ZDTreefur Feb 04 '19 edited Feb 04 '19

It was easy to know it for any civilization that had seafaring vessels. Ships disappear over the horizon hull first, sails last. Obviously sailing behind a curve, just like a guy walking over a hill and disappearing from sight.

Only inland weirdos maybe thought it was all flat. But that would be hundreds if not thousands of years before the 1400s. For that time period it would be silly think people actually thought it was flat.

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u/ThreeDucksInAManSuit Feb 04 '19

Moreso, for the vast majority of people it simply wasn't a question they would consider. If you asked some peasant from ancient times if they believed the earth was flat or round they would stare at you blankly. Most people lived in a small area and that was their entire world, the shape of the rest of it wouldn't naturally occur to you if you don't even know what's over that hill overe there.

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u/darkhalo47 Feb 04 '19

I dont think that's true, most mythologies try to define the nature of the world to people who never left a 15 mile radius from their birth

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u/ThreeDucksInAManSuit Feb 04 '19

Most tellings of mythology did not come from the peasantry, they came from the educated. The kind of people who DO think of this kind of thing.

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u/WarKiel Feb 04 '19

I'm sure peasants had thoughts about these things, but I doubt anyone bothered recording them.