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It was not a "scientist" in our modern concept of the term that discovered the spherical nature of the Earth. All sailors who have sailed out a few dozen kilometers from the coast have always known that the earth is spherical. As they approached a coast, first they saw the high points of the land and as they got closer, more and more of the lower areas. This happens everywhere and if you go to a lake when it is calm you can see the effect as you look across and lower your head towards the surface of the water (if the lake is small - less then a few hundred meters - then the water will have to be very quiet and you will need to get quite close- but there is no doubt that the surface is spherical!
Eratosthenes calculated the size of the Earth to within a few percent of the real value about 2250 years ago.
The moon was also known to be spherical in prehistoric times. On a sunny day, when the moon is visible in the sky, hold a ball up so that it is very near the position of the moon. You will see that the shadow on the ball and the moon have exactly the same shape, no matter when during the month you perform this experiment. The simplest (and true) explanation is that the moon and the ball have the same shape.

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