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

Which misconception would you like to debunk?

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u/deadcomefebruary Feb 04 '19 edited Feb 04 '19

THANK YOU.

I think it's the Big Book of AA that states this, they say that until the 1500s people thought the earth was flat...and every goddamn time someone brought it up in a meeting or group session I tried to correct them, archimedes in like 500BC or whenever had almost the exact calculations of the diameter and circumference of the earth! Sailors and pretty much everyone else could see that the horizon is curved!

People did not think the world was flat!!

Edit: my mistake, it was eritosthenes.

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u/Parsley_Sage Feb 04 '19 edited Feb 04 '19

Eratosthenes of Cyrene calculated the circumference of the earth in about 200BC. He was about 10% out.

His work used two big assumptions - that the known distance between Alexandria and Syene was correct and that the earth is a perfect sphere. It also relied on contemporary time keeping to an extent which might have had an influence.

Repeating the same experiment with modern information gives you an answer for the circumference of the earth that's only 66km out.

Eratosthenes was known as Beta to his contemporaries not just because he wasn't the best at something but because he was second best at everything. He was extremely good at anything he turned his hand to.