THE EARTH IN THE

UNIVERSE
Activity 1: Watch the Sunset
▪ Procedures:
1. Choose a nice spot from which you can watch a sunset (well call this
point A) Ideally, you’d have a clear horizon in front of you, and behind
you would be some sort of elevated point that you can quickly access
(a hill, a building with at least two floors, or perhaps the aforementioned
tree, we’ll call this point B.
2. Watch the sunset from point A, and once the sun is out of sight,
proceed to point B. With the added elevation provided by point B, you
should be able to see the sun above the horizon.
a. From the activity, if the Earth is flat what will happen to the sun once
it had set?
b. If the Earth is round what will happen to the sun once it had set?
Activity 2: Climb a Tree
▪Procedures:
1. If the earth were flat, what would exactly be
your observations when standing at the base
and when at the top of the tree? Explain your
answer.
2. Can our naked eye see objects that are
millions of miles away in space?
Activity 2: Climb a Tree
▪Procedures:
1. If the earth were flat, what would exactly be
your observations when standing at the base
and when at the top of the tree? Explain your
answer.
2. Can our naked eye see objects that are
millions of miles away in space?
▪Have you ever wondered what the early
philosophers thought about the shape of the
Earth?
▪Around 500 B.C., most Greeks believe that the
Earth was round, not flat. It was Pythagoras
and his pupils who first propose a spherical
Earth
▪Have you ever wondered what the early
philosophers thought about the shape of the
Earth?
▪Around 500 B.C., most Greeks believe that the
Earth was round, not flat. It was Pythagoras
and his pupils who first propose a spherical
Earth
Plato’s “Saving Appearances”
Pythagoras, a Greek philosopher viewed
heaven as perfect and that a circle is a perfect
polygon. From this, Plato concluded that
heaven is circular and the motion of celestial
bodies is a perfect objects has to be constant
and circular as well. However, it was observed
that some planets move in an uneven path
across a pre-set background of stars, doing
asymmetrical and nonrepeating retrograde
rings.
Plato’s “Saving Appearances”
Figure 1 shows how the retrograde motion
of a planet occurs. An observer on Earth sees
the path of an outer planet as moving
backward. This apparent backward motion is
called retrograde motion. Faced with the
difficulty of explaining the retrograde motion of
planets, the followers of Plato used the allegory
of the cave story to save appearances and
provide an explanation without dismissing the
present belief.
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Plato’s “Saving Appearances”

In 500 to 430 B.C., Anaxagoras further

supported Pythagoras’ proposal through
his observations of the shadows that the
Earth cast on the Moon during a lunar
eclipse. He observed that during lunar
eclipse, the Earth’s shadow was reflected
on the Moon’s surface. The shadow
reflected was circular.
Plato’s “Saving Appearances”

Around 340 B.C., Aristotle listed

several arguments for a spherical
Earth which included the positions
of the North Star, the shape of the
Moon and the Sun, and the
disappearance of the ships when
they sail over the horizon.
North Star
The North Star was believed to be
at a fixed position in the sky.
However, when Greeks travelled to
places nearer the equator, like
Egypt, they noticed that the North
Star is closer to the horizon.
The Shape of the Sun and the Moon

Aristotle argued that if the

Moon and the Sun were both
spherical, then perhaps, the
Earth was also spherical.
Disappearing Ships
If the Earth was flat, then a ship
travelling away from an observer should
become smaller until it disappeared.
However, the Greeks observed that the
ship became smaller and then its hull
disappeared first before the sail as if it
was being enveloped by the water until it
completely disappeared
The Size of the Spherical Earth
Ancient scholars tried to provide proof of a
spherical Earth and its circumference through
calculations. It was Eratosthenes who gave the most
accurate size during their time. While he was working at
the Library of Alexandria in Northern Egypt, he received
correspondence from Southern Egypt, which stated that
a vertical object did not cast any shadow at noontime
during the summer solstice. But this was not the case
in Alexandria where, at noon time during the summer
solstice, a vertical object still casts a shadow. These
observations could only mean that the Sun, during that
time in Alexandria, was not directly overhead.