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The earliest mentions of the earth being round refer to Pythagoras ( the triangle man) and another Greek philosopher Parmenides, who both lived around 500 BC.

Around 330 BC Aristotle taught that the earth was round, based on observations.

In 240 BC in Egypt Eratosthenes was the first man to measure the circumference of the earth. On mid summers day the sun shone straight down a well in Syrene meaning that the sun was directly over head, but in Alexandria where Eratosthenes was it cast a shadow. by measuring the angle of the shadow he was able, using simple trigonometry to calculate the angles of a triangle with corners at Alexandria, Syrene, and the centre of the earth. This told him the distance from Alexandria to Syrene was 1/50 of the total circumference.

From the beginning of the christian era knowledge that the earth was round was widespread, and generally accepted.

Stories that Columbus was challenging the flat earth theory on his voyage to the Americas are wrong. The arguments Columbus had with his contemparies were about distance rather than shape. Columbus misread an Arabic text that lead him to believe the earth was about 20 000 kilometres around instead of about 40 000 km. His opponents argued that his journey to India would be about three times longer than he thought, and that he could not carry enough supplies for such a journey. Both Columbus and his opponents knew the earth was round. (His opponents had the size right but Columbus got lucky and hit the Americas)

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Related Questions

What religion first accepted the earth was round?

jewdism


What does undesputed mean?

Fact(s) not disputed, i.e. generally accepted, like the Earth is round. that is undisputed.


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The moon rotates round the Earth.


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Yes and no. It depends when you mean. The idea of a round Earth was accepted before the idea of the Sun being in the middle of the solar system. It was only about 400 years ago that people began to believe in the "heliocentric" (Sun centered ) solar system.


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Since the determination of the fact that Earth is spherical as opposed to flat, all scientists (after a short lag period) have accepted that it is so.


How can we prove that earth is round for kids?

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he found out the earth was round when he studied geography


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Socrates lived in ancient Greece, where the concept of a spherical Earth was already accepted by some scholars. It is likely that Socrates was aware of this idea, but there is no direct evidence of his beliefs on this specific topic in his surviving works.


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