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1a. (Shape of The Earth)
1a. (Shape of The Earth)
Excerpts Only:
Science Story
The stories in this regular section of SER may be used to enrich lessons and make them
more interesting.
Early civilizations held a variety of beliefs about the shape of the Earth.
Babylonians considered the Earth and all other things, such as the moon, sun, stars, sky,
and water, to be inside a hollow mountain, with the Earth floating on a sea.
Egyptians thought of the Earth as being part of their god, Keb. Their god of air held the
stars, the jewels of a goddess, in the sky.
Cherokee people believed the Earth to be a four-cornered island, formed by mud rising
from under the waters. The sun disappeared beneath the island each night.
Polynesians viewed the Earth as being in a woven grass basket with a lid. At night, the
weave allowed light to peek through (i.e., the stars), and a hole cut in the top of the basket
by a god let light in during the day.
Contrary to what many think, it was not explorer Christopher Columbus who first
suggested that the Earth is “round.”
Although the very early Greeks thought the Earth was a flat disc floating on water,
Pythagorus proposed a spherical Earth about 540 BC.
About 250 BC, Eratosthenes made a good estimate of the Earth’s circumference. He used
the . . . .