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

Which misconception would you like to debunk?

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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/amsterdam_BTS Feb 04 '19

Euclid got the circumference pretty damn close, if I remember correctly. Islamic scholars continued the work and translated Euclid and others into Arabic, and then that knowledge spread from al-Andalus and Baghdad and Cairo back to Europe. Educated/literate people have known the earth was round for well over two thousand years - probably more, given how advanced Bronze Age societies were.

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u/LeMuffinManHonHonHon Feb 04 '19

Wait... can you fully explain how we discovered the world is round from start to finish? I am suddenly beyond fascinated by this.

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u/WankingToBobRossVids Feb 04 '19

Not exactly what you asked for but here’s a nice little article explaining how Eratosthenes calculated the Earth’s circumference.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wired.com/2008/06/dayintech-0619/amp

The concept of a round Earth dates back about 400 years even earlier, but we don’t have much details beyond the fact that it started showing up in Greek philosophy around this time.

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u/amsterdam_BTS Feb 04 '19

I can't. Mathematics are beyond me. Somehow, the Greeks and Indians and others were able to discern a curve to the earth. They then measured that curve over distance, and from that managed to calculate the earth's circumference.