Re: Okay, what the HECK is going on in France?

W,

> I'd say that was true, but they had no way of knowing until it was
> done
>

Not so. See Wikipedia's entry for Eratosthenes
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes) - a marvelous example of
science at work. To make a long story short: he noticed around 200 B.C.
that in some place pretty far south there was a time around noon when a
stick would not cast a shadow and the sun would shine down a deep well,
while at the same time back home, sticks would always cast shadows and
the sun would never reach down. From that he concluded that the sun had
to be shining straight down at that southern place while at the same
time not doing so at his home place. The only explanation he came up
with was that the Earth is round - and he calculated it's diameter.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

.

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