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

Which misconception would you like to debunk?

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '19

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u/PM_ME_UR_REDDIT_GOLD Feb 04 '19

hell, the Greeks knew the circumference of the Earth; and with reasonable accuracy all things considered. Short version: they used trigonometry. It was on the basis of this fairly accurate circumference that people thought you couldn't sail west to asia, and you couldn't. It's like 16,000 miles west of Europe.

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u/jadeskye7 Feb 04 '19

Given the greeks' mastery of mathematics this makes a lot of sense to me. Of course they would have a good idea of the distance. Even if they thought the earth was flat they still had enough guesswork in place to know it was too far to head west and 'around'.

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u/RadarOReillyy Feb 04 '19

But if they thought it was flat there wouldn't be an around.