Register | Sign In


Understanding through Discussion


EvC Forum active members: 65 (9162 total)
3 online now:
Newest Member: popoi
Post Volume: Total: 915,806 Year: 3,063/9,624 Month: 908/1,588 Week: 91/223 Day: 2/17 Hour: 0/0


Thread  Details

Email This Thread
Newer Topic | Older Topic
  
Author Topic:   There you Go,YECs...biblical "evidence" of "flat earth beliefs"
munkeybongo
Inactive Member


Message 67 of 243 (12374)
06-29-2002 4:54 AM
Reply to: Message 48 by joz
03-01-2002 12:53 PM


Eratosthenes was Director of the Great Library at Alexandria. One day while perusing the scrolls he noticed a report that in the southern frontier outpost of Syene, at noon on June 21 (the summer solistice), vertical sticks cast no shadows, and the sun shone directly down deep wells (i.e. it was directly overhead).
Because he was a scientist Eratosthenes decide to do an experiment - would sticks cast a shadow at midday on june 21 in Alexandria ? He found out that they do. How, then, is it possible that on June 21 the sun is directly overhead at Syene, but not at Alexendria. If the world was flat there would be no shadows at either location. Eratosthenes then conluded that the only possible explanation for this effect is that the surface of the earth is curved, like a sphere. Well with a few more obsrevations you can imagine what he finally ended up with, a sphereical model of the earth. So you see he did deduce the spherical nature of the earth after all.
Then again this could all be just a nice story that Carl Sagan made up.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 48 by joz, posted 03-01-2002 12:53 PM joz has not replied

  
Newer Topic | Older Topic
Jump to:


Copyright 2001-2023 by EvC Forum, All Rights Reserved

™ Version 4.2
Innovative software from Qwixotic © 2024