Talk:Spherical Earth

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Do you happen to have a source for the length of the "stade". I recall reading somewhere that figure for the stade was derived from that very same measurement by erastothenes. In other words, a pure case of circular reasoning: "We know the correct circumference of the earth, Erastothenes measured it in stades, hence we can assume that the stade was approximately such and such long. Now, let's see how close Erastothenes got when he measured the earth... WOW! Almost on the nose!!!". -- Cimon Avaro on a pogo stick 14:07 25 May 2003 (UTC)

I vote against merging the articles.

[edit] Chinese and others

This article doesn't discuss the views of Chinese and other non-Europeans much at all (except a brief mention of Persians). AFAIK, the Chinese largely believed the world was spherical from early on, before 0 AD I believe. In fact, I'm not even sure whether the idea the world is flat was ever a popular phenomenon at least in recorded history. Someone who knows more about research on the historical views of non-Europeans should add to this and the world is round articles. Nil Einne 15:29, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

As I wrote in Talk:Flat Earth... This article (in Portuguese) says that Chinese only started to discuss the possibility of an spherical earth in the 17th century. I've read other sources agreeing that, during the Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the Chinese believed in a flat Earth... But I agree that the article should elaborate on the views of non-Europeans. --Leinad ¬