24 Jan
2025
24 Jan
'25
12:59 p.m.
On Friday, January 24, 2025 at 12:33:45 PM PST, Frank Leonhardt via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
The theory that the earth is flat is clearly
disproven. Aristotle worked
it it was basically spherical, yet crackpots believe it's flat to this
day - often because their scripture said otherwise.
Aristotle!?! Eratosthsenes calculated the diameter of the earth from the annual vertical
shadow in the well at Syene, the shadow of a stick observed at the same time in
Alexandria, geometry, and the best distance data available at his time. (Famously,
allegedly from professional message couriers -- runners -- counting steps.)
Ancient Greeks inferred that the world was round from, amongst other facts, that the hulls
of ships disappeared over the horizon before the masts. (On general, lower parts
disappeared before upper parts, and no matter in which direction the ship went; and the
same happened no matter where it's viewed.) And that the horizon retreats when you
climb a mountain, no matter where the mountain.
And 40% of US adults reject evolution and believe that humans were created in their
current form within the past 10,000 years. (Gallup, 2019)