Dani Soto

If early people didn't know the earth was round , what shape did they think it was ?

Magellan`s Crew
Magellan died but his crew circumnavigated the earth in the 1520s and found that the earth
was definitely round
HISTORY OF DISCOVERIES:
Plato:was the first person to push the theory that earth was round
Pythagoras was another mathematician who pushed that theory and conducted further research
on the subject . He proposed that since the moon was round the earth must be round in
comparison to that. He also said that the terminator or lines in between the dark part of the
moon and the light part of the moon when it was in its cycle of moving. He also made it a point
to navigate the stars .
Plato tried to convince Athens that the earth was round several times but he couldn't give any
specific evidence as to why it was round
Aristotle who was a student of Plato had evidence as to how the earth was round , he proposed
that when a person traveled north or south. He also said earth was round because of its shadow
when there is a lunar eclipse.
Another piece of evidence that is earth is round is the disappearing ship theory. Where, when a
ship sails away you see the mast last , but if a ship were to sail away on a flat surface the whole
ship would disappear in a whole , not in sections like a curved surface.
To add on to other theories of earth being round is the 90 degree angle experiment where you
can't create 3 90 degree angles on a flat surface, but you could create a triangle made of 3 90
degree angles on a curved surface.
These are just some of the people who proposed this theory. For all the skeptics ,the first
photographic evidence of earths round shape appeared in 1949.
Though there is photographic evidence of earth being round, there are still some non believers
out there. These people actually have their own society to disprove that earth is round , they
argue that if there are two people standing at the different poles on the earth how would they not
"fall" off the earth , even with gravity being involved they still do not believe that earth is round.
Another piece of evidence they present is that round objects eventually slow down in motion
after moving for periods of time , they say even if earth has an orbit , how has it not slowed
down after billions of years in the same constant motion ?
They also say that since the earth is made up of 75% water how is the water not splashing
around ? They believe that the oceans are bowl shaped which prevent them from splashing
around and prevents loss of water .
HISTORY OF FLAT EARTH
Though its stated how we discovered how earth is round , evidence wasn't given as to why we
thought this way. The reason is that the earth looks flat when you look at the horizon .
Not to mention hardly any people thought the earth was flat. Most believed that the earth was
cylinder shaped, or that it was domed shaped as previously mentioned.
Most people embraced the ideals of their mythology or beliefs and applied them to the their
theories about earth. Whether you were a catholic,believed in greek mythology, or african tales.
Even though hardly anyone believed that the earth was flat those who did couldn't provide hard
evidence to back up the theories that they had , eventually the theories died out and the
supporters died with it.
REASONS WHY THE EARTH ISN'T FLAT:
If the earth was flat that would make the seasons changing impossible.
Also another reason it's impossible for the earth to be flat is that there would be complete
darkness for half the year and the other half would be full of complete sunlight which would
make it impossible for any person to survive.
Also water floating freely on the earth would be impossible.


SOURCES:
http://discovery.yukozimo.com/who-discovered-the-earth-is-round/
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=earth-is-not-round
http://launchistory.blogspot.com/2012/06/history-of-round-earth-theory.html
http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskopf/Flatearthsociety.htm
http://www.howitworksdaily.com/q-and-a/who-first-discovered-the-world-was-round/
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_the_Earth_flat#slide1