At the beginning of this online assignment I mentioned Christopher Columbus.
You see, there is a common belief that we he sailed the ocean blue in 1492, he got so off course because he thought the earth was flat.
Today we know and understand that the earth and moon are round. This is a scientifically proven fact to us.
Scientists are not sure who the first person who figured out the earth and moon was round, but we know that ancient Greek philosophers knew these facts some how.
Aristotle and Eratosthenes (it's okay if you can't pronounce their names), were men who lived in ancient Greece. Aristotle was not a scientist, but he did work closely with Eratosthenes in drawing pictures and graphs to prove that the earth was round.
Back then, they thought the earth was in the center of the universe and everything rotated around the earth. Now we know that isn't possible, and we know that the sun is the center and that our planets (including earth) rotate around the sun.
The fact is Aristotle and Eratosthenes both knew the earth was round...and they lived thousands of years before Columbus sailed the ocean.
So we can safely conclude that Columbus did know the Earth was round. He just got lost because he tried sailing a new route that he wasn't used to.
From what you have learned so far, please comment to this post below.
In your comment please answer these questions,
"Why would ancient philosophers think the Earth was the center of the universe? Were they right"
Please make sure you answer these questions in one paragraph in your comment.
Remember: A paragraph is 3-5 sentences.
Images from
http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/solar_system_level1/moon.html
