The Story I heard was that the "fact" in question was not whether or not
the world was flat, but of it's size. Some (not sure who the Players
were...) contended it was about 24000 miles around (close to the correct
figure). Others, including Columbus, contended it was about 5000 miles -
so a journey west to Chine was eminently possible.

Columbus was still wrong when he hit land, which was why he named it
"Indies" and the natives "Indians".

Lloyd

ps - a belated Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I'm still burbin' turkey!

ls


There's a problem with that theory.
How far is it from the west coast of Europe to the east coast of China going
*East*?
And that's still not "around the world," by any stretch of the imagination.

Ever been to the Vatican? There are some pretty decent maps of Europe and Asia
from the 14th and 15th Century on display.
It would be tough to accept that Columbus thought the circumference of the
world was 5000 miles.

On 15 Oct 2003 01:06:39 GMT, (Gould 0738) wrote:

The Story I heard was that the "fact" in question was not whether or not
the world was flat, but of it's size. Some (not sure who the Players
were...) contended it was about 24000 miles around (close to the correct
figure). Others, including Columbus, contended it was about 5000 miles -
so a journey west to Chine was eminently possible.

Columbus was still wrong when he hit land, which was why he named it
"Indies" and the natives "Indians".

Lloyd

ps - a belated Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I'm still burbin' turkey!

ls


There's a problem with that theory.
How far is it from the west coast of Europe to the east coast of China going
*East*?
And that's still not "around the world," by any stretch of the imagination.

Ever been to the Vatican? There are some pretty decent maps of Europe and Asia
from the 14th and 15th Century on display.
It would be tough to accept that Columbus thought the circumference of the
world was 5000 miles.



Mr. Gould, )

Did you have a look at this? It is interesting.
http://www1.minn.net/~keithp/cclandfl.htm

....carry on.
noah

To email me, please remove the "FISH" from the net.

On 13 Oct 2003 16:33:36 GMT, (Gould 0738) wrote:

But the teachers didn't know any better, and taught us what they thought they
knew.

======================================

Yes, like a lot of other things. I've always been offended at the
thought of how much our grade school years were wasted. I think we
spent a whole school year just on long division.

On Tue, 14 Oct 2003 23:33:40 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On 13 Oct 2003 16:33:36 GMT, (Gould 0738) wrote:

But the teachers didn't know any better, and taught us what they thought they
knew.

======================================

Yes, like a lot of other things. I've always been offended at the
thought of how much our grade school years were wasted. I think we
spent a whole school year just on long division.

I spent 12 years in Catholic School. That explains a lot. )
No one, in any job interview I've ever had, has asked me to recite the
succesion of Popes. Bummer.

....carry on.
noah

To email me, please remove the "FISH" from the net.