The form of the Earth - our home - has worried humanity for a long time. Today, every student has no doubt that the planet is spherical. But they went to this knowledge for a long time, they went through church anathemas and courts of the Inquisition. Today, people are wondering who proved that the Earth is round. After all, not everyone liked the lessons of history and geography. Let's try to find the answer to this entertaining question.
History tour
Many scientific works affirm us with the idea that before the famous discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, humanity believed that it lived on a flat Earth. However, this hypothesis does not hold water for two reasons.
- The great seafarer discovered a new continent, and did not sail to Asia. If he anchored off the coast of real India, then he could be called a man who proved the sphericity of the planet. The discovery of the New World is not a confirmation of the circular shape of the Earth.
- Long before the epochal journey of Columbus, there were people who doubted that the planet was flat, and cited their arguments as evidence. It is likely that the navigator was familiar with the works of some ancient authors, and the knowledge of the ancient sages was not lost.
Is the earth round?
Different peoples had their own ideas about the structure of the world and space. Before answering the question, who proved that the Earth is round, you should familiarize yourself with other versions. The earliest theories of peacebuilding claimed that the earth was flat (as it was seen by people). They explained the movement of the heavenly bodies (sun, moon, stars) by the fact that it was their planet that was the center of the Cosmos and the Universe.
In Ancient Egypt, the Earth was represented by a disk lying on four elephants. They, in turn, stood on a giant turtle swimming in the sea. So far, no one has been born who discovered that the Earth is round, but the theory of the sages of the pharaoh could explain the causes of earthquakes and floods, sunrise and sunset.
The Greeks also had their own ideas about the world. The Earth’s disk, in their understanding, was covered with celestial spheres, to which the stars were attached by invisible strings. They considered the moon and sun to be gods - Selena and Helios. Nevertheless, the books of Pannekoek and Dreyer contain the works of the ancient Greek sages, which contradicted the then generally accepted views. Eratosthenes and Aristotle were those who discovered that the Earth is round.
Arab teachings were also famous for their accurate knowledge of astronomy. The stellar tables they created are so accurate that they even cast doubt on their authenticity. Arabs with their observations pushed society to change ideas about the structure of the world and the universe.
Evidence of the sphericity of celestial bodies
I wonder what guided scientists, denying the observations of the people around them? The one who proved that the Earth is round, drew attention to the fact that if it were flat, then the lights would be visible in the sky at the same time for everyone. But in practice, everyone knew that many of the stars that are visible in the Nile Valley, it is impossible to make out over Athens. A sunny day in the Greek capital is longer than, for example, in Alexandria (this is due to the curvature in the north – south and east – west directions).
The scientist, who proved that the Earth is round, noticed that the object, moving away while moving, leaves only its upper part visible (for example, the masts of the ship are visible on the shore, and not its hull). This is only logical if the planet has the shape of a ball, and not a flat object. And Plato considered the fact that the ball is an ideal shape to be a strong argument in favor of sphericity.
Modern evidence of spherical shape
Today we have technical devices that allow us not only to observe celestial bodies, but also to ascend into the sky and see our planet from the side. Here is some more evidence that it is not flat. As you know, during a lunar eclipse, the blue planet closes the night luminary with itself. And the shadow is round. And also various masses of which the Earth consists, tend downward, giving it a spherical shape.
Science and Church
The Vatican admitted that the Earth is round, rather late. Then, when it was impossible to deny the obvious. Early European authors at first rejected this theory as one that was contrary to scripture. During the spread of Christianity, not only other religions and pagan cults succumbed to persecution. All scientists who conducted various experiments made observations, but did not believe in one God, were considered heretics. At that time, manuscripts and entire libraries were destroyed, temples and statues, and objects of art were destroyed. The Holy Fathers believed that people do not need science, only Jesus Christ is the source of great wisdom, and the holy books have enough information for life. The geocentric theory of the structure of the world was also considered a church wrong and dangerous.
Kozma Indikoplevst described the Earth as a kind of box, at the bottom of which rested a stronghold inhabited by people. The sky served as a “cover”, but it was motionless. The moon, stars and the sun moved angels across the sky and hid behind a high mountain. The Kingdom of Heaven rested above this complex structure.
An unknown geographer from Ravenna described our planet as a flat object surrounded by the ocean, endless desert and mountains, behind which the sun, moon and stars are hiding. Isidore (Bishop of Seville) in 600 AD in his works did not exclude the spherical shape of the Earth. The Venerable misfortune was based on the work of Pliny, therefore he declared that the Sun is larger than the Earth, that they have the shape of a sphere, and that the cosmos is not geocentric.
To summarize
So, returning to Columbus, it can be argued that his path was not based solely on intuition. Not wanting to reduce the merits of the great traveler, we can say that knowledge of his era should have brought him to India. And society no longer rejected the spherical shape of our home.
The first thought on the Earth-sphere was expressed by the Greek philosopher Eratosthenes, who already in the fourth century BC measured the radius of the planet. The error in his calculations was only one percent! Checked his guesses Fernand Magellan in the sixteenth century, making his famous trip around the world. Who has proved that the earth is round? Theoretically, this was done by Galileo Galilei, who, by the way, was sure that it was she who was spinning around the sun, and not vice versa.