What is the idea of a flat Earth?
Q: What is the idea of a flat Earth?
A: The idea of a flat Earth is that the surface of the Earth is flat (a plane).
Q: When did belief in a flat Earth begin?
A: Belief in a flat Earth is found in the oldest writings. Early Mesopotamian maps showed the world as a flat disk floating in the ocean. This was a common belief until the Classical Greeks began to discuss the Earth's shape about the 4th century BC.
Q: Who was Eratosthenes and what did he do?
A: Eratosthenes (276 BC–194 BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician who calculated the circumference of the Earth quite accurately. From then on, few educated people ever believed in its being flat, though it remained popular among those with less education.
Q: Who argued for a spherical or ball-shaped earth?
A: Authors such as King Alfred of Anglo-Saxons, Hildegard von Bingen, Thomas Aquinas, Snorri Sturluson, Marco Polo, Dante Alighieri and Christopher Columbus argued for a spherical or ball-shaped earth.
Q: How did exploration prove that the earth was round?
A: Portuguese explorers explored Africa and Asia while Christopher Columbus sailed to America (1492) and Ferdinand Magellan circumnavigated (sailed all round)the earth (1519-21). This proved finally that our planet is actually shaped like globe.
Q: What woodcut illustrates this concept?
A:The widely circulated woodcut shows someone poking their head through firmament of a Flat Earth to see machines working spheres around it . It cannot be traced back earlier than Camille Flammarion's L'Atmosphère book from 1888.
Q: When does Rudyard Kipling's story about voting for Flat Earthers take place?
A:Rudyard Kipling's story "The Village That Voted The Earth Was Flat" takes place during medieval times when Erasmus Montanus claims that everyone believes it’s flat despite his arguments otherwise
