![]() ![]() This was an amazingly accurate estimate, considering that Eratosthenes came up with it more than 2,000 years ago! And he didn’t even have access to modern instruments or technology. This would put the circumference of the Earth at anywhere from 40,000 to 50,000 kilometers.) There is some debate about how long one stadia actually was, but estimates range from 160 to 210 meters. (Astadia was a unit of measurement used by the Greeks. But he also knew that in Alexandria, about 800 kilometers to the north, the sun was not directly overhead at that same time.īy measuring the angle of the sun at Alexandria, and knowing the distance between the two cities, Eratosthenes was able to calculate that the circumference of the Earth must be about 250,000 stadia. He knew that at noon on the summer solstice, the sun was directly overhead at the city of Syene (now called Aswan). ![]() This was one of the first pieces of evidence that people had that the Earth might be a sphere.īut it wasn’t until about 200 years later that another Greek scholar, Eratosthenes, came up with a way to actually measure the circumference of the Earth.Įratosthenes was the chief librarian at the Library of Alexandria in Egypt. He noticed that the shadow cast by the Earth on the moon was always round, no matter what part of the planet was facing the moon. Pythagoras’s idea was based on his observations of the moon during a lunar eclipse. In fact, the Greek philosopher Pythagoras was the first to come up with the concept of a spherical Earth back in the 6th century BCE. Most people think that the idea that the Earth is round didn’t gain much traction until after Aristotle proposed it around 350 BCE.īut that’s not the case. Read also: What would the world be like If the earth had two moons? Who discovered the earth is round? “How courageous must those 1492 sailors have been to sail off towards the edge of the world without fear of falling off!” you might think.Īs it turns out, there were plenty of others who thought the Earth was a globe before Columbus was even born. The notion that Columbus was the only one of his time who thought the Earth was round is one of the most persistent misconceptions children acquire.Įveryone else, they believed, thought it was flat. ![]()
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