Decline of the Flat Earth model

Decline of the Flat Earth model

Some ancient authorities in the credited the Greek philosophers in the 6th century BC, and, in the 5th, with recognizing that the

Around 330 BC, provided observational evidence for the spherical Earth

The Earth's was first determined around 240 BC by Eratosthenes knew that in the Sun was directly overhead at the summer, while he estimated that the angle formed by a shadow cast by the Sun at Alexandria was 1/50th of a circle. He estimated the distance from Syene to Alexandria as 5,000 and estimated the Earth's circumference was 250,000 stadesSubsequently, ignorance of the size of a stadia caused problems both to the Arabs and to Christopher Columbus.

In the 2nd century BC, devised a terrestrial sphere which divided the Earth into four continents, separated by great rivers or oceans, with people presumed to be living in each of the four regions Opposite the the inhabited world, were the considered unreachable both because of an intervening equator) and the ocean. This took a strong hold on the medieval mind.

opposed the concept of a spherical Earth, because he considered that in an infinite universe there was no center towards which heavy bodies would tend, thus he considered the idea of animals was in a position to claim that everyone agrees on the spherical shape of Earth although there continued to be disputes regarding the nature of the antipodes, and how it is possible to keep the in a curved shape. Pliny also considers the possibility of an imperfect sphere, "shaped like a