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From: jlg@lanl.UUCP (jlg)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: Orphaned Response
Message-ID: <23885@lanl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 29-Mar-85 17:17:00 EST
Article-I.D.: lanl.23885
Posted: Fri Mar 29 17:17:00 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 14-Apr-85 02:48:21 EST
References: <493@cadovax.UUCP>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard
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> Knee-jerk skeptics who dismiss ideas that don't happen to correspond to
> their own beliefs would probably have laughed at Copernicus for suggesting
> that the earth was not the center of the universe, or Columbus for suggesting
> that the earth wasn't flat.

All educated people in the days of Columbus knew that the Earth was
spherical.  So did most sailors.  The accepted cosmology of the time was
Ptolemy's.  The claim that Columbus made was that the circumference of the
earth was 15,000 mi. rather than the generally accepted 25,000 mi..
Unfortunately for Columbus, he was wrong.  Fortunately for Columbus, there
was a whole contenent in the way that he didn't know of.  The reason that
Columbus's crew was on the verge of mutiny was that they had passed the
point of no return (not enough provisions to return to Europe) before they
had sighted land and their compass was no longer pointing precisely north.


J. Giles