Discussion»Questions»Human Behavior» Once upon a time when folks thought the earth was flat they also thought you could sail over the edge. Where did they think they'd land?
You might have heard the story about the well of Syene. Somebody noticed that on one day of the year the sun shined exactly straight down the well, while another well north of that always caught the sun at an angle. So he assumed the planet was round, measured the angle and the distance between the wells, and calculated the diameter of the Earth.
Well, the Chinese noticed the same effect about the same time, but they assumed the planet was flat and calculated the altitude of the sun.
That is why Greeks were fearless sailors and Chinese were not.
I did not know any of that JV. Thank you so much for enlightening me. I'm not a very astute noticer. Some people are great at it. Much of the time I'm oblivious to my surroundings because I'm thinking about a zillion different things simultaneously so I'm unaware. Sometimes it works against me. Sometimes it protects me from stuff I don't need in my life! You win some, you lose some! Happy Tuesday! :)
Once upon a time was actually last year when Youtube videos trying to convince people the earth really is flat started showing up on the front page and in the sidebar or at least they did when I watched Youtube. I'm not sure exactly what I watched to get Youtube to recommend those to me but I'm pretty sure the world is a globe because the horizon appears to drop off in a circle around you. I'm not quite sure how they don't seem to notice that but anyway they claimed Antarctica is really a ring around world to keep the oceans from flowing over the edge.
I couldn't find what they believe is beyond the edge but it could have been just trolls coming up with that stuff that for lulz.
Not Sure 