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What is wrong with quoting Columbus?
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What is wrong with quoting Columbus’ strange views on the shape of the earth on the opening page of a chapter entitled, “The World is a Pear”? Those lines are from Columbus’ “Letter on his Third Voyage.” Even Davis isn’t using that as a description of the size and shape of the earth, just a cute vision from the often mistaken Columbus. On page 62 Davis writes: “You may have laughed when you read the words that open this chapter about his idea that the world was shaped like a pear. Well the Joke’s on you. One of the things we learned when the Vanguard satellite, launched in March 1958, went into orbit was that the Earth is not a sphere as we learned in grade school – a “fact” we have accepted since the days of Newton. In fact, astronomer John O’Keef determined from Vanguard’s orbit that the Earth I slightly pershaped with a bulge in the southern hemisphere – though not to the extent Columbus imagined.” Not geodesy to be sure but certainly not “astonishing.” |
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