Tag Archives: Spherical Earth

Above: Evidence for the Earth's round shape is the curved shadow it casts on the Moon during a lunar eclipse, as seen in this 2008 observation from Greece. Main image: An engraving of the sixth-century BCE Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, one of the early proponents of the idea that the Earth is a spherical object.
c. 500 BCE: Pythagoras and the Spherical Earth

The concept of a spherical Earth, now a fundamental understanding, was popularized by Pythagoras, the 6th-century BCE Greek philosopher. His indirect arguments, from observing lunar eclipses to the changing positions of constellations, laid the groundwork [...]