Flat Earth or round Earth?

 

We all know that the Earth is round. With the help of artificial satellites, it is quite easy now to take a picture of earth and ensue that it is round. But the situation was not like that over a century ago. Artificial satellites are recent discoveries, their history goes back to 66 years only. But we knew that earth is round much before that. How we came to know about it?

          In earlier days people didn’t know that the Earth is round. They believed that earth is a huge rectangular plane surrounded by oceans. Earlier navigators feared to go far in the ocean for the fear of falling off the edge of ocean. Where do they fall? That was known to them also, but they were afraid of falling into empty space.

          But some of the intellectuals began to think that earth must be spherical in shape, based on certain theoretical observations. Whenever someone observed the lunar eclipses, they observed that the shadow of earth falling on the moon was always round. It wouldn’t have been possible if the Earth was in some other shape. Even if the Earth was like a circular disc, the shadow would have been circular in only one direction when the plane of Earth was perpendicular between the sun and the moon. In any other position its shadow wouldn’t have been round.

          The next observation was made by the navigators who went into the sea. The distant ships coming towards the observer were showing the tops of their masts first. Slowly as they approached the observer, the lower part of the mast and finally the entire ship was becoming visible. This was possible only if the earth was curved. If the earth were flat, no matter however distant the ship is, the entire ship would have been visible at once. Now only the top of the mast is visible at a distance because the curvature of Earth hides the ship at a distance.

                If the Earth were flat, the entire ship would have been visible at once, no matter however distant it is. 

                As the Earth is round, the curvature of the planet hides the bottom of ship from our view when it is far away. 

          You can also easily experience the curvature of the earth by doing a simple experiment from wherever you are standing. Go near a tall building or a mountain. Stand at the base of the building during sunset. The sun slowly moves in the sky and disappears below the horizon. Once it disappears, climb to the top of the building and look towards it and you will be surprised that it is still visible. The reason for this is that the curvature of earth hides it from you when you were standing on the ground, but once you climb to the top of the building, you can still see it. But if the earth were flat, you wouldn’t have been able to see it any cost after it has set.

             If the Earth were flat, once the sun is set, it would not have been visible no matter what the elevation of your position is. 

                As the Earth were round, sun would still be visible if you climb to the top of the building or a mountain, even though it is not visible from the ground level. 

          The confirmation that earth was round was obtained by the famous round the globe expedition carried out by Ferdinand Magellan and his aides. A group of about 270 men along with Magellan left Spain in 1519 to circumnavigate the planet. Even though Magellan himself and majority of the others were killed on the way, about 18-19 survivors returned to their original place, proving that earth was a huge sphere indeed. This was truly a remarkable achievement at that moment. By navigating round the globe, they had thwarted the popular belief that existed for several thousand years that the Earth was flat.

          Despite all these, even still today many people believe that the earth is flat! In Facebook there is a page called flat earth society and there are several thousand followers for that page!