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2026-02-08 02:20:18 UTC
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Daniel Wigton on Nostr: People in the 17th century didn't believe the earth was flat. The earth has been ...

People in the 17th century didn't believe the earth was flat. The earth has been treated as round by the educated since the 5th century BC. It is fun to paint the medieval period as backward, but there isn't much truth in it.

It is like the myth that Columbus was trying to prove the earth was round. But everyone already knew that in his day. What he was trying to prove was that the earth was small enough to sail west to India.

He had trouble getting a ship, because people who could math knew that it was a longer route.