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I remember a teacher in the 80s asking the class when humans proved the Earth was round. The correct answer for her was when an astronaut took a picture from ou

I remember a teacher in the 80s asking the class when humans proved the Earth was round. The correct answer for her was when an astronaut took a picture from outer space. While I'm sure your theory fits for some, there's also some misunderstanding of science that can be at play too. For me, there's little difference between a flat earther and believing we didn't know there Earth was round until we took a picture. Sure, one knows the Earth is round and one doesn't, but they both are missing the foundation to know _why_ we know the Earth is round. If you can't explain why, you don't really understand it. And if you don't understand it, you're susceptible to misinformation.

ninguem2 8y ago
Eratosthenes not only showed that the earth is round but computed its circumference around 200BC by measuring shadows at two different latitudes.
- mabbo 8y ago
  As I've read it, he got a very close estimate, but only because he made two errors that happened to cancel each other out. As well, he didn't actually measure the shadows himself, but heard stories about there being no shadow at a specific city.
  - bjoli 8y ago
    What he did was simple geometry, and in a way he was the right man in the right place. He heard that the sun was in zenith during the summer solstice ina certain town. He had a good runner measure the distance between Alexandria and that town and then measured the angle of the sun during the solistice in Alexandria (for simplicity, say it was 6 degrees). To get the full circle, just multiple by 60. 6th graders maths.
    - paradoxparalax 8y ago
      Is a pity that we have lost "his" library by human stupidity. There could have been a lot more to know about the state-of-art of astrography at his time.
- LoSboccacc 8y ago
  Aristotle's proof was less mathematical but to me more surprising: "you can see Earth's shadow on the Moon and it's always a circle" which point to a great deal of understanding of planets, lightning and orbital mechanics.
james_s_tayler 8y ago
You're susceptible to misinformation to the extent that you can't verify a truth claim. And you can't verify most truth claims. You can gaslight basically anyone about basically anything by playing epistemological games with them. Unless they have direct experience with the thing in question and they have personally observed the phenomena in question you can always get people to realize that they take everything they know on faith. It's a hell of a thing to realize. I did this to my nephew recently with regards to Flat Earth when she said "but we have satellites up in space, so we know its round!" and I asked her "did you see the satellites go up into space?" and the penny dropped for her that she realized she took it on faith that the satellites were really up there and that if she wanted to find out if they really were or not that it would be one hell of a task. Now, that's a pretty reasonable thing to take on faith and aside from a few conspiracy theorists there is broad consensus about that and it doesn't seem to be particularly contraversial. But our epistemology about most things boils down to that. We don't actually know anything. We are told things, we don't verify them for ourselves because it's way too expensive or not even possible for us to do so and we build our whole model of the world on that + things we personally observe. You also can't explain basically how anything works in great detail. Look around any given room in your house and start going through items and explaining them in as deep detail as you can. So with that as a reference point any time anyone has an explanation for something that provides more detail than your model has and they seem believable, it's actually not easy for you at all to tell when someone is bullshitting you either on purpose or because they are just as clueless as you. This is why we believe all manner of crazy, implausible things.
- everdev 8y ago
  Very well said! I heard someone on the Joe Rogan podcast describe science as faith. There's nothing in the universe that says gravity today must act like gravity tomorrow. We basically take it on faith that we understand gravity and that it's not changing. If you're looking for 100% confidence, "I think therefore I am" or simply "I am" is as close as we've come.

ninguem2 8y ago

Eratosthenes not only showed that the earth is round but computed its circumference around 200BC by measuring shadows at two different latitudes.

mabbo 8y ago
As I've read it, he got a very close estimate, but only because he made two errors that happened to cancel each other out. As well, he didn't actually measure the shadows himself, but heard stories about there being no shadow at a specific city.
- bjoli 8y ago
  What he did was simple geometry, and in a way he was the right man in the right place. He heard that the sun was in zenith during the summer solstice ina certain town. He had a good runner measure the distance between Alexandria and that town and then measured the angle of the sun during the solistice in Alexandria (for simplicity, say it was 6 degrees). To get the full circle, just multiple by 60. 6th graders maths.
  - paradoxparalax 8y ago
    Is a pity that we have lost "his" library by human stupidity. There could have been a lot more to know about the state-of-art of astrography at his time.
LoSboccacc 8y ago
Aristotle's proof was less mathematical but to me more surprising: "you can see Earth's shadow on the Moon and it's always a circle" which point to a great deal of understanding of planets, lightning and orbital mechanics.

james_s_tayler 8y ago

You're susceptible to misinformation to the extent that you can't verify a truth claim. And you can't verify most truth claims. You can gaslight basically anyone about basically anything by playing epistemological games with them. Unless they have direct experience with the thing in question and they have personally observed the phenomena in question you can always get people to realize that they take everything they know on faith. It's a hell of a thing to realize. I did this to my nephew recently with regards to Flat Earth when she said "but we have satellites up in space, so we know its round!" and I asked her "did you see the satellites go up into space?" and the penny dropped for her that she realized she took it on faith that the satellites were really up there and that if she wanted to find out if they really were or not that it would be one hell of a task. Now, that's a pretty reasonable thing to take on faith and aside from a few conspiracy theorists there is broad consensus about that and it doesn't seem to be particularly contraversial. But our epistemology about most things boils down to that. We don't actually know anything. We are told things, we don't verify them for ourselves because it's way too expensive or not even possible for us to do so and we build our whole model of the world on that + things we personally observe. You also can't explain basically how anything works in great detail. Look around any given room in your house and start going through items and explaining them in as deep detail as you can. So with that as a reference point any time anyone has an explanation for something that provides more detail than your model has and they seem believable, it's actually not easy for you at all to tell when someone is bullshitting you either on purpose or because they are just as clueless as you. This is why we believe all manner of crazy, implausible things.

everdev 8y ago
Very well said! I heard someone on the Joe Rogan podcast describe science as faith. There's nothing in the universe that says gravity today must act like gravity tomorrow. We basically take it on faith that we understand gravity and that it's not changing. If you're looking for 100% confidence, "I think therefore I am" or simply "I am" is as close as we've come.