When did we suspect that the Earth was round?

I recently read the passage:

“On the summit of the pillar, above one hundred and twenty feet from the ground, stood the colossal statue of Apollo. It was of bronze, had been transported either from Athens or from a town of Phrygia, and was supposed to be the work of Phidias. The artist had represented the god of day, or, as it was afterwards interpreted, the emperor Constantine himself, with a sceptre in his right hand, the globe of the world in his left, and a crown of rays glittering on his head.”

This caused me to pause and question my assumptions about how recently mankind had determined that the Earth was round.

I mentioned this to my mom. She immediately set me straight and sent me an essay by Isaac Asimov (earthpix). The essay is short, and well worth reading. As an extra incentive to read it …….. it explains how in 240 BC Eratosthenes used two sticks to correctly estimate the radius of the Earth.

Leave a Reply