Not only did people understand the world was round, Eratosthenes calculated its circumference to within 1% using a perfectly valid method in about 200 BC.
@WillP999 Um, no, but at least I can spell. And Stephen Fry is not a douche, he is a very intelligent, witty person which is much more than I can say for you.
@M1ST3RHYDE The title I chose is of course a bit misleading - Ancient Near East obviously believed in a planar earth (see the nice "Flat Earth" Wikpedia entry), but the QI question refers to the common myth about the Middle Ages, a myth propagated probably first by the Humanists who wanted to set themselves apart from the "Dark Ages" - an enormously successful PR ploy, if you will...
Just blew a climate skeptics argument out of the water with this. He argued that human climate change will eventually prove to be wrong because "It only took one person to prove that the world wasn't flat." Referred him to this youtube video, he had absolutely no comeback.
It could also be said that It tips off the Edge Head first and it does it slowly because the crew are Running Full Steam Astern and they are loosing a slow battle.
The translation of the earths shape is said to be Circular, But A circle is Not a Sphere simply taken from the Definition: CIRCLE, A closed plane curve consisting of all points at a given distance from a point within it called the center. Equation: x2 + y2 = r2. The Bible was and Still is Wrong.
Well unless there are some pretty crazy circumstances where stars can be other shapes that we havent forseen, all stars should be round because over a certain mass things are rounded by thier own gravity, although the shape could be slightly distorted temporarily by the gravity of other nearby objects. ^ Pretty sure anyway. (I have been to every star except 4 of them.)
People will believe whatever you want them too. You just need to put it in the right context, and present it the right way, and repeating it over and over again.
I'm learning...and I'm enjoying it....this must be some sort of trap! ;P I love this show. I feel Stephen is the teacher and Alan is the class smart alec :)
@PiecesOfRainbow7 Ah, it seems you're not familiar with the increasingly popular "inflating beachball" theory about the development of our home planet and even the entire universe. It includes time being viewed backwards and the big bang being the end.
Just watch a ship sail into the distance, it disappears from the bottom-up as it goes across the curved world. If the world were flat, it would fade off all at once.
@M1ST3RHYDE I'm confused about two things... 1. why have you capitalized random words? and 2. what exactly are you saying, im a bit befuddled. are you saying the earth WAS once flat? If so, don't be silly. Of course it wasnt. lol.
@WillP999 LOL, now you're just claiming things that neither you can prove nor can I disprove. And I thought this ...argument?... couldn't get any stupider.
@PiecesOfRainbow7 I have TurretS:~} People Knew it to be flat in the Bronze age, Before and after asWell. This was only because they didn't know any better than to trust their simple ways just as all the rest of the Humans that wrote parts of that collective. I can be wrong and silly at times but Im not That out of touch with reality. Thanks for askn by the way, Most wont bother.
