It is a question that still puzzles many people to this day, despite the human being’s ascent into space and the large numbers of satellites flying around the Earth. However, the sphericity of the Earth is still not proven to this day for many people.
- The theory of the flat earth in ancient times:
The subject was not important to ancient man, it is simple, the earth is flat as he sees it with the naked eye, and it has a sun that rises on it every day, then heads west to die there, and a new sun rises the next day, until talk began about the sun and different theories appeared proving that the sun is one, rises and sets every day, where the theory prevailed that after the sun goes west there is a carriage pulled by huge horses that works to transport it to the east to rise again.
After the issue of the single sun was settled, the discussion began again about the planet Earth. Yes, it is flat, this is certain to them, but the question at that time was about how it remained stationary at this size. Here appeared the Indian theory that claimed at that time that the Earth is stationary because there are a number of very large elephants supporting it, and these large elephants were standing on the shell of a very large turtle floating in an endless ocean.
- The sphericity of the sun and moon:
The science of geometry began to appear among the Greeks, and with it began to measure the size of things, including observing the sun and moon, and the change in the shape of the moon from a crescent to a full moon, and this led to the discovery of two important things: the first is that the earth and the moon are spherical, and the second is that the moon is dark, and the light it sends to the earth is nothing but a reflection of the sun’s light.
Here the talk about the sphericity of the Earth began, especially after many people tried to reach the end of the Earth, but the surprise is that the end of the Earth is nothing but water, that is, the seas and oceans in our concept today, but what is striking is that since the moon and the sun are spherical, this means that the Earth may also be spherical in addition to the disappearance of stars such as the North Star and others after traveling long distances, so if the Earth is flat, where did those stars disappear?
The stars that people saw when traveling to the north were different from the stars that appeared when traveling to the south.
- The first theories of the sphericity of the Earth:
The discussion about the matter began with Greek scientists who began to notice when standing on the coast that ships when they move away appear as if they are sinking, knowing that if the Earth is flat, it is natural for ships to appear smaller and smaller the further away they are, but ships appear as if they are sinking in all directions when they move away, which means that the shape of the Earth is spherical, in addition to the study of the phenomenon of a lunar eclipse by Aristotle, who confirmed that the shadow that appears on the moon and hides the light from it is nothing but the shape of the Earth, which appears spherical through the shadow of its reflection on the moon.
- The first trip around the Earth:
The Portuguese sailor Magellan began his journey towards the other side of the Earth. He was convinced that if he continued his sea voyage from where Columbus stopped, he would reach the other side of the Earth. He was actually able to reach the Philippines from Cape Magellan, which was named after him and is located in the far south of the American continent. It can be considered the first tangible proof of the sphericity of the Earth.
At the beginning of the sixties, man began to conquer space and was able to orbit the Earth, land on the surface of the moon, and take pictures of the Earth from the surface of the moon.
It cannot be said that ancient scientists were wrong. They were trying to explain the phenomena around them according to the primitive means that were available at the time.