• Question: is it true that the straightest line is the horizon, why?

    Asked by to Edward, Ian, Mathew, Naomi, sakshisharda on 23 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Ian Stephenson

      Ian Stephenson answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      not at all… the horizon is curved!

      We live on a planet that is round, and if you go the coast on look out to see you can actually see that.

      Which if you think about it calls into question the whole earth is flat/round debate. Did people ever think it was flat? probably at some point, but they certainly figured it out a lot quicker than we like to think. Sailors definitely knew they could sail over the horizon – they build “crows nests” because then they could see further… so the idea that we were sailing all over the place, and also tracking stars 1000’s of years before we figured out the earth was round is a bit suspect!

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