Who proved that the earth is round?

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Martian

Who proved that the earth is round?
« on: March 12, 2006, 07:14:27 PM »
I need to find out who proved the earth is round. I have to do this crossword puzzle of random questions for school, and I haven't found anything that fits off of google. The clue is "Proved the earth is round." It's a 6 letter name; that's all I know. All help is appreciated.   :)

And no, I'm not lazy.

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Erasmus

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Who proved that the earth is round?
« Reply #1 on: March 12, 2006, 08:28:33 PM »
That's kinda tough... anybody without an oppressive religious agenda (and many with) have believed basically for 2500 years, at least, that the Earth was round.  I don't personally know of any philosophers of Antiquity going out of their way to demonstrate that the Earth is a sphere.  Several of them (Eratosthenes, Aristarchus) made calculations of the Earth's circumference, but they (like their audience) were already assuming the Earth to be round.

My buest guess is "GREEKS".  Got any other letters yet?

-Erasmus
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Who proved that the earth is round?
« Reply #2 on: March 12, 2006, 09:47:25 PM »
Mayans?
img]http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a330/Akapvaious/Sensei.jpg[/img]

Who proved that the earth is round?
« Reply #3 on: March 12, 2006, 09:47:30 PM »
Proved the earth is round?  Camera.  The answer Erasmus gave was a good one.  I can't think of any six letter names.  Pythagoras argued that it was spherical.  He was Greek.  So were Plato, Aristotle, and Ptolemy.
ooyakasha!

Who proved that the earth is round?
« Reply #4 on: March 14, 2006, 05:06:43 AM »
Quote
I need to find out who proved the earth is round. I have to do this crossword puzzle of random questions for school, and I haven't found anything that fits off of google. The clue is "Proved the earth is round." It's a 6 letter name; that's all I know. All help is appreciated.


See if "quacks" fits.

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rebecchi__06

Who proved that the earth is round?
« Reply #5 on: March 15, 2006, 10:31:44 AM »
You could try "eejits" ok so it may sound stupid but you never know!

Who proved that the earth is round?
« Reply #6 on: March 15, 2006, 01:12:24 PM »
Galileo did i believe among many other things... how can a conspiracy remain from that time anyways?

As Ben Franklin said "The only way to keep a secret between three people is if two are dead"

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Erasmus

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Who proved that the earth is round?
« Reply #7 on: March 15, 2006, 01:30:06 PM »
Quote from: "EtidBtbam"
Galileo did i believe among many other things... how can a conspiracy remain from that time anyways?


Thanks for perpetrating the myth that in the middle ages, people believed the world was flat.  Have you read any of the posts in this thread besides the first one?  You realize that the names mentioned above all precede Galileo by a thousand years or more, right?
Why did the chicken cross the Möbius strip?

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joffenz

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Who proved that the earth is round?
« Reply #8 on: March 15, 2006, 01:38:31 PM »
Quote from: "EtidBtbam"
As Ben Franklin said "The only way to keep a secret between three people is if two are dead"


Indeed, but to paraphrase Goebbels(sp), "People more easily believe in a big lie than a small one".

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inaneskeptic

Who proved that the earth is round?
« Reply #9 on: March 31, 2006, 02:00:32 AM »
The only six-letter name that comes to mind is Kepler, but by that time, the spherical earth was pretty much a given. Most of his work was concerned with planetary motion, cleverly deducing the orbit of mars and helping cement heliocentric theories.

The identity of the first person to consider the earth round is pretty much unknown, since it is not unreasonable to assume that such thought predated even the greeks.  Aristotle was the first to go to some lengths to prove his assertion that the earth was spherical, when he pointed out the appearance of southern constellations in relation to the horizon, or that ships disappeared from view because of the earth's curvature.

Many general trivia questions are framed in such a way as to dismiss pre-rennaisance developments or discoveries made by nonwestern scientists (the tremendous leaps made by arab mathematicians around the turn of the first millenium, for instance).

It's easy enough to prove that the world is spherical, at least to yourself.  Believing that it is flat requires many leaps of faith, and a determination to ignore any evidence that disputes your hypothesis.  So, congratulations to the flat-earthers, they probably go to great lengths to sustain their beliefs.

I wonder if any of them ever considered shelling out twenty million dollars to go into orbit, the struggling Russian space agency would be quite happy to take up on the offer.

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EnragedPenguin

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Who proved that the earth is round?
« Reply #10 on: March 31, 2006, 08:18:42 AM »
I think it was Pythagoras that came up with the theory of a round earth some time around the sixth cenury B.C, and Ptolemy proved it some time in second century A.D
A different world cannot be built by indifferent people.

Re: Who proved that the earth is round?
« Reply #11 on: April 27, 2009, 03:25:55 PM »
I need to find out who proved the earth is round. I have to do this crossword puzzle of random questions for school, and I haven't found anything that fits off of google. The clue is "Proved the earth is round." It's a 6 letter name; that's all I know. All help is appreciated.   :)

And no, I'm not lazy.

See if Balboa fits.

Earnest Balboa sailed to America before Columbus did.

Re: Who proved that the earth is round?
« Reply #12 on: April 27, 2009, 03:28:32 PM »
The clue is "Proved the earth is round." It's a 6 letter name; that's all I know. All help is appreciated.   :)

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Roundy the Truthinessist

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Re: Who proved that the earth is round?
« Reply #13 on: April 27, 2009, 03:40:46 PM »
I need to find out who proved the earth is round. I have to do this crossword puzzle of random questions for school, and I haven't found anything that fits off of google. The clue is "Proved the earth is round." It's a 6 letter name; that's all I know. All help is appreciated.   :)

And no, I'm not lazy.

See if Balboa fits.

Earnest Balboa sailed to America before Columbus did.


So did Leif Ericson.  But none of them proved that the Earth is round.

And that's a three-year-old post.  Don't necro if you don't have something meaningful to add.
Where did you educate the biology, in toulet?