The Earth
Introduction
The planet Earth is one of many planets that supports the life conditions for human beings. From times, the humans have been able to explore the limits of Earth, there is an incessant debate about its apparent structure. Some claim that the Earth, which humans inhibit is flat and some believe that the Earth is spherical ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"ISAqF4f2","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Cohen, 2016)","plainCitation":"(Cohen, 2016)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":710,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/8RECNVWM"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/8RECNVWM"],"itemData":{"id":710,"type":"chapter","title":"The earth is round (p<. 05)","container-title":"What if there were no significance tests?","publisher":"Routledge","page":"69–82","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Cohen","given":"Jacob"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Cohen, 2016). They both present interesting and thought-provoking ideas, some of which are even scientifically proved. In view of the discoveries made to date, it is very much understandable that those who believe the Earth is round outweighed those who think the other way around. There exist many instances to prove this fact. For example, the simplest and most observable example is humans’ articulation of the solar system, which is based on the presumption that the Earth is round ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"1Js0doaI","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Cohen, 2016)","plainCitation":"(Cohen, 2016)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":710,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/8RECNVWM"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/8RECNVWM"],"itemData":{"id":710,"type":"chapter","title":"The earth is round (p<. 05)","container-title":"What if there were no significance tests?","publisher":"Routledge","page":"69–82","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Cohen","given":"Jacob"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Cohen, 2016). Considering the scientific discoveries and the debates surrounding the Earth’s structure, it is arguably right that Earth is spherical and not flat.
Analysis of the flat or spherical claims
Earth is the only planet that contains life supporting conditions. The solar system which humans have been able to discover so far has resulted in believing in the presumption that the Earth (as we know today) was formed around 4.5 billion years ago. The existence of the moon also dates back to the same time frame.
How the Earth is spherical? There are many facts that suggest the claim that the Earth is spherical. In fact, human discoveries from day one have helped in concreting this narrative. Since NASA has been able to image Earth from space, the movement of clouds, the water pattern, and the creation of an imagery equator suggest that the Earth is spherical. In the southern hemisphere at night, one can observe the south celestial pole with the stars appearing to rotate clockwise around it ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"gV5XBnhl","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Marshall, 2015)","plainCitation":"(Marshall, 2015)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":714,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/NNWQ8DSM"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/NNWQ8DSM"],"itemData":{"id":714,"type":"book","title":"Nature's Web: Rethinking Our Place on Earth: Rethinking Our Place on Earth","publisher":"Routledge","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"Nature's Web","author":[{"family":"Marshall","given":"Peter"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2015"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Marshall, 2015). It is always due south no matter where in the southern hemisphere one is viewing it from, and it can be viewed from more than one country at a time simultaneously, due south from both countries, with the same stars appearing to rotate clockwise around it. Another reason is the elevation of the celestial pole above the horizon, which is always equal to how many degrees south of the equator anyone views it from. The same is true in an opposite sense for the north celestial pole (Polaris) in the northern hemisphere, the angle of which it appears above the horizon is always equal to how many degrees north of the equator one views it from ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"Wp0JJgHg","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Marshall, 2015)","plainCitation":"(Marshall, 2015)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":714,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/NNWQ8DSM"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/NNWQ8DSM"],"itemData":{"id":714,"type":"book","title":"Nature's Web: Rethinking Our Place on Earth: Rethinking Our Place on Earth","publisher":"Routledge","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"Nature's Web","author":[{"family":"Marshall","given":"Peter"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2015"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Marshall, 2015).
Some of the more important facts to authenticate, the spherical earth claim comes from Aristotle who pointed out in De Caleo that there exist stars which are high in the sky in some parts of the world and at the same time very close to the horizon (or even invisible) in other parts of the world. He also worked on studying the shadow of the Earth on the moon during a lunar eclipse, which appeared as the arc of a circle. A century later, Eratosthenes attempted to calculate the circumference of the Earth by using the position of Sun on the Earth’s surface ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"jQ4UXm7K","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Marshall, 2015)","plainCitation":"(Marshall, 2015)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":714,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/NNWQ8DSM"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/NNWQ8DSM"],"itemData":{"id":714,"type":"book","title":"Nature's Web: Rethinking Our Place on Earth: Rethinking Our Place on Earth","publisher":"Routledge","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"Nature's Web","author":[{"family":"Marshall","given":"Peter"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2015"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Marshall, 2015). Some other scientists and geographers like Posidonius and Ptolemy revisited the Greeks’ arguments and came up with the argument that the Earth is spherical.
How the Earth is flat? Contrary to what has been put forward till today, the flat Earthers present to the world a whole new conceptualization. For them, Earth is just a simple hanging disk. The edges of which are taken cared of by the Antarctic. The flat Earthers have arranged themselves as a campaign; for them, the idea of being a globe is just ordinary and is nothing more than another way of grasping the control of resources. In history, this idea first appeared in the Greek philosophy of Pythagoras ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"YiRZ9txz","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Mintzberg, 2017)","plainCitation":"(Mintzberg, 2017)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":717,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/NZCCU8MH"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/NZCCU8MH"],"itemData":{"id":717,"type":"chapter","title":"Developing theory about the development of theory","container-title":"Handbook of Middle Management Strategy Process Research","publisher":"Edward Elgar Publishing","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Mintzberg","given":"Henry"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Mintzberg, 2017). Some also believe that Pre- Socrates' time people were of the same belief that Earth is flat. However, in modern history, the historical myth came into the limelight in the 19th century. This myth was brought forward based on the findings of the cosmological doctrine of the Middle Ages. Washington Irving, who was the prominent forebearer of this idea, maintained that Columbus had to propagate the idea of global Earth, for the reason that he needed permission for the voyage. William Draper and Dickson White are some other propagators of this idea ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"AMkkqYdt","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Mintzberg, 2017)","plainCitation":"(Mintzberg, 2017)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":717,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/NZCCU8MH"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/NZCCU8MH"],"itemData":{"id":717,"type":"chapter","title":"Developing theory about the development of theory","container-title":"Handbook of Middle Management Strategy Process Research","publisher":"Edward Elgar Publishing","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Mintzberg","given":"Henry"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Mintzberg, 2017). However, from this period of time and onwards, the flat Earthers started associating this idea to the religion. Those who had been associated with the Flat Earth movement cite different phenomena to prove their point of view. The most famous remains the example of the lighthouse, which they believe appears in the same measurement, irrespective of how far one moves away from it ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"FLmtROeW","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(MSFC, 2015)","plainCitation":"(MSFC, 2015)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":715,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/YAQ3N6GX"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/YAQ3N6GX"],"itemData":{"id":715,"type":"webpage","title":"What Is Earth?","container-title":"NASA","abstract":"Planet Earth has an abundance of water that makes it unique and perfect for life to exist.","URL":"http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/nasa-knows/what-is-earth-58.html","language":"en","author":[{"family":"MSFC","given":"Jennifer Wall :"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2015",6,16]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",10,17]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (MSFC, 2015). But interestingly, as like those who believe in the spherical concept of Earth, remain largely fail to present the pictorial or imagery evidence of their claim.
Conclusion
In view of the facts presented above, it remains quite obvious which group holds reasonable strength to validate its arguments. Contrary to the literary debate, both the flat Earthers and those who believe in the spherical conceptualization of Earth have remained to fail to get the attention of masses. Flat Earthers think they are leading a campaign to reform the beliefs of people, whereas others believe that their contribution is adding significant knowledge to people’s minds. The row between these both remains unstoppable, as they have got the attention of media just in this period of Earth’s history.
References
ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Cohen, J. (2016). The Earth is round (p<. 05). What if there were no significance tests? (pp. 69–82). Routledge.
Marshall, P. (2015). Nature’s Web: Rethinking Our Place on Earth: Rethinking Our Place on Earth. Routledge.
Mintzberg, H. (2017). Developing a theory about the development of theory. In Handbook of Middle Management Strategy Process Research. Edward Elgar Publishing.
MSFC, J. W. : (2015, June 16). What Is Earth? Retrieved October 17, 2019, from NASA website: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/nasa-knows/what-is-earth-58.html
