I am a fan of sagan, but this is presented all wrong.

Eratosthenes knew the world was spherical, like most educated ancient greeks, because he was taught it as fact from childhood, the same way we are today. He never once questioned that fact, nor ever sought to validate it.

His method was designed to calculate the circumference of the earth and absolutely requires that the world be spherical in order to be at all sensical.

The ancient greeks “knew” the world was spherical because they were taught it as fact from childhood, and the (admittedly extremely spotty) history shows that the reason was due to pythagoras’ musings on lunar eclipses; eratosthenes had absolutely nothing to do with it.

If you have an interest in this topic please join us on flatearthresearch to discuss it, as such discussions are unwelcome here (as per the mods). If you can’t find it, let me know and i will pm you a link.

I am a fan of sagan, but this is presented all wrong.

Eratosthenes knew the world was spherical, like most educated ancient greeks, because he was taught it as fact from childhood, the same way we are today. He never once questioned that fact, nor ever sought to validate it.

His method was designed to calculate the circumference of the earth and absolutely requires that the world be spherical in order to be at all sensical.

The ancient greeks “knew” the world was spherical because they were taught it as fact from childhood, and the (admittedly extremely spotty) history shows that the reason was due to pythagoras’ musings on lunar eclipses; eratosthenes had absolutely nothing to do with it.

If you have an interest in this topic please join us on flatearthresearch to discuss it, as such discussions are unwelcome here (as per the mods).