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/sci/ - Science & Math

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3893252 No.3893252 [Reply] [Original]

Hey /sci/

In a few hundred years, do think our current understanding of the universe could be compared to our knowledge of Earth's shape in the 1400's?

>> No.3893273

but the earth is flat

>> No.3893311

>>3893252

First of all, people knew the Earth was round as far back as 500 BC, possibly earlier.

As for the knowledge we have now, in some ways yes, in some ways no. A better comparison might be comparing our knowledge of physics/chemistry/biology now with our knowledge of it in the mid-1700s and early 1800s. We'll learn a lot more, and a lot of our presumptions might change, but the actual knowledge we have is likely correct, at least in most areas.

>> No.3893349

Actually, it is quite similar, since people who thought the Earth was flat (in defiance of a preponderance of well-reasoned evidence that it was a sphere) matches quite well with the great numbers of people today who believe the supply of cheap energy is limitless (in defiance of a preponderance of well-reasoned evidence that cheap oil was all we really had).

>> No.3893661

Seriously, how could anyone capable of seeing the moon, think the earth wasn't also an orb?

>> No.3893667

>>3893661
>implying the moon isn't a disc

>> No.3893677

>>3893311
Not all people, but certainly some yes knew that earth was round, and a close approximation of its diameter.

>> No.3893678

>>3893667

It's pretty obvious if you watch it throughout it's cycle just from the shadows that it is ball shaped. A cave man would have to be a complete idiot not to grasp that.

>> No.3893683

>>3893661
the earth is a cone, why wouldn't the moon also be a cone?

>> No.3893697

>>3893677
>>3893311
The Greeks were the first civilization we know of to know that the Earth was round. The Greeks were sailors and the curvature of the Earth is more apparent out at sea than on land. One can see the mast of sailboats long before the hull.

And the fact that most of the world was ignorant of the fact that the Earth was round shouldn't even be mentioned. Most people don't understand what the Big Bang is, that doesn't mean people 2000 years from now people should always note that fact when knowledge of the Big Bang during this era is questioned.

>> No.3893702

But we're just spinning so fast it appears 3D I see what you did there OP.