The first scientific estimates of the Earth’s circumference were made by the Greek mathematician and geographer Eratosthenes in 240 BC. A 15th century manuscript copy of Ptolemy world map, reconstituted from Ptolemy’s Geography. Greek philosophers established that the Earth was round as far back as the third century BC, but it wasn’t until the 15th century that it became commonly accepted. “The further away from the village they travelled, the more hostile the environment became.” They lived in a village that was the centre of their existence,’’ she says. “Their view was egocentric and geocentric. Ships would sail off toward the horizon and often never return, and those people left behind didn’t really have access to information outside of their communities. Once upon a time, it made sense for people to believe that the Earth was flat, says University of Melbourne cartographer Chandra Jayasuriya. So what’s causing a renewed interest in something that’s been scientifically disproven for the past two thousand years or more? What does it say about social media? And how did we actually establish that the world is round in the first place? And it has some high-profile supporters.įrom basketball players to musicians, rappers to TV hosts, a number of celebrities are jumping on the flat Earth bandwagon. Interest in most of these other far-fetched theories remains stable but the flat-Earth movement is growing, particularly in America. Picture: Getty ImagesĪnd it’s getting more traction than some of the other conspiracies out there, like chemtrails (which proposes that a plane’s long-lasting condensation trail is actually made up of chemical or biological agent). A third of Americans polled by YouGov believe the Earth is flat. In fact, a recent YouGov poll found that only around two-thirds of Americans aged between 18 and 24 believe that the Earth is round.Īlthough the idea the Earth is flat has been scientifically discredited, there seems to be a growing belief in the conspiracy theory. If you type ‘flat Earth’ into Google, you’d be joining a group of people that have helped to triple the search term over the last couple of years.
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