The Disappearing Spoon: a science history podcast with Sam Kean
The Making of the “Flat Earth” Myth
May 12, 202617 min · 3,235 words
Show notes
No one in Columbus’s time believed the world was flat. So why did so many children learn this bogus “fact” in school? It all goes back to Rip van Winkle. Advertising Inquiries: Privacy & Opt-Out:
Highlighted moments
Columbus wanted to convince the king and queen of Spain that he could reach Asia by sailing west. But there was a problem. Many people in Columbus' time believed an ancient Greek idea, that the globe was perfectly divided into 180 degrees of ocean and 180 degrees of land
“He eventually claimed that the distance from Spain to Japan was under 2,800 miles. It's actually more than 13,000 miles.”
“the brighter the Renaissance humanists were to shine, the darker the preceding ages had to be.”
“They conflated the church's opposition to Antipodean people with opposition to the idea that the Antipodes even existed.”
Transcript
Transcript not available for this episode yet.