Learning exercise 1: who first stipulated that the earth was round?

Who was the 1st to suggest the earth is round?Not a well known fact at all as I discovered today.The answer will be given Wednesday afternoon if nobody gets it.

The Greeks, I believe it was the Pythagoras collection wasn't it?

the Greek philosopher Pythagoras is given credit for this concept while at his school. But many of his contemporaries also believed the earth was round.

messenjah of oneEratosthenes. He not only detrmined earth was round but calculated its circumference. There may have been earlier references to the disappearing of ships upon the horizon and the idea of a round earth being put forward before this though.

Well round was a pretty common description going way, way back and of course, wrong.Aristotle and Thales argued it was a sphere based mainly on the shadow during a Lunar eclipse and the fact that as one moved north or south different stars came in view. We do know that by the time of Erathosthenes the fact that the earth was a sphere was pretty much accepted. Posidonius and El Ma'mun each also later calculated the circumference, the former estimating an east west measure and the later a north south one. By the time of Newton the idea that it would not be a perfect sphere was being discussed.The pratical knowledge though was way behind the pratcical application as while the philosophers were busy pondering and pandering their ideas, folk had already traveled all the way around the globe settling every continent.Edited by jar, : No reason given.Edited by jar, : No reason given.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Not to be rude but can the participants please quote source material.

No real point on something this trivial and unimportant. If you know something else please just post it so we can move on.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

There has been a nisunderstanding and an ignorance so great on my part it is not worth explanation.Let's just say it has something to do with page 4 of Aquinas's 5 proofs of God.I have thoroughly embarassed myself. I realize I can not take any words said from any source however credible without my own personal and thorough research.It was a learning experience thank you all.Pretty plain to see it was the Greeks.I have nothing to add here, sorry.botched exercise for everyone elseEdited by -messenjah of one, : sentence

I wanna say that it was the greeks too who originally came up with the heliocentric model, but I'll have to do some digging up on that later.

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You would say right. It was Aristarchus, born around 310 b.c died around 230 b.c.Edited by alacrity fitzhugh, : spelling

yay relatively pointless trivia facts that I remember from the back of my head. It would be interesting to see his proofs--damn dark ages, so much science thrown away. (I curse all dark ages for this effect, in their local or global effects)

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You mind enlighten us on what page 4 said and what you've found that made you realize you couldn't take any source seriously without independent confirmation sources?A long time ago, I had a discussion with a muslim friend about the so-called 5 proofs of god. I can't say I remember all of them in great details. What I do remember is that I was able to poke holes through all so-called 5 proofs.Sorry for getting off-topic.But anyway, who did you have in mind that first proposed the heliocentric model and what did the person proposed as the mechanics behind such planetary behavior?

One of my mentors once commented that we'd be colonizing space for centuries by now if it weren't for the dark ages when all forms of non-doctrine thought was declared plasphemy. In fact, some historians have theorized that shakespeare would have been typing his plays on computer if we didn't have the dark ages.

messenjah of one Such is the nature of learning. Credibilty stands or falls on the weight of investigation and good research.

Here is a well-known among academics but not-so well-known among everyone else useless trivia. By what means did Eratosthenes determine the circumference (or radius if you want) of the earth and was it accurate? Shhh for those who thinks this is obvious.