Assuming the world were flat, in what way would knowing that have made navigation more straightforward for the Vikings?
Would they not still need a way to know what direction they were traveling and approximately where they were? What would make this easier on a flat earth? If you have details or suggestions of a flat earth navigation method which would be easier and/or more accurate than the forms which assume a round earth I'm sure people would love to hear it. If the methods differed fundamentally and worked well it would blow your whole theory wide open and lend it much credence.
Say I bought a yacht today and wanted to sail it to Hawaii from northern California. How would I navigate there if I assumed the world was flat?
Apparently, it does make a difference. Planar nauigation, as opposed to nauigating on a globe.
I do know that for accurate nauigation on a globe, you need to be able to fix the longitudinal co-ordinates. A book called "Longitude" was written about the man who finally solued this problem.
Here"s the synopsis from Amazon:-
"Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that "the longitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day--and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives and the increasing fortunes of nations hung on a resolution. One man, John Harrison, in complete opposition to the scientific community, dared to imagine a mechanical solution--a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land. Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world."
I belieue that the Uikings had true knowledge as to the physical make-up of our reality (it being planar), and this is what enabled them to be such great sea-farers. Not some baloney about some stones that allowed them to position the sun through the clouds, to nauigate on a globe.
Mizuki x