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Comment by PeCaN | Hacker News Reader

I kid you not, it's taught in American elementary schools (at least it was to me, in the early-mid 2000s).

...Yeah. Thankfully my middle school general science textbook mentioned this shit's been known forever and the Greeks even estimated the circumference of the thing.

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What stands out in my mind is some educational film (early 90s?) where Columbus sees a butterfly land on an orange, and it reminds him of a ship on a round Earth.

It's a baffling myth that has been lazily propagated for a very long time. Would be interesting to figure out where it came from.

Compounding the error is the claim he discovered the Americas. He actually found the Caribbean islands. Which is kinda close, but not really the same.

But yay simplification that Columbus found America! At least that's what most teach the kids. My kid will know better.

How are the Caribbean islands not American?

They are not connected to continents.

True, but they're definitely in the same realm if you will. Just like Great Britain is part of Europe, and New Zealand is part of Australia. (Continentally-speaking!! Don't flame me, Kiwis).

Madagascar is Africa, Japan is Asia. I don't know what to categorize Iceland as, though.

  > New Zealand is part of Australia. (Continentally-
  > speaking!! Don't flame me, Kiwis)

I'm not a kiwi, but NZ is on a subduction zone so can't be part of an existing continent. PNG is probably more what you were thinking of re: AU.

You're right. I was thinking of Papua New Guinea. I seem to always imagine NZ as being much closer to AU than it really is. Thanks.

> I don't know what to categorize Iceland as, though.

The plate boundary of American and Eurasian continents -- Mid Atlantic Ridge -- runs through Iceland.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_Ridge

A tourism advertisement: http://www.visitreykjanes.is/en/moya/toy/index/place/bridge-...

(Haven't been there but I've been thinking that one day I should.)

Madagascar should be related to India, though. Separated 80mil years ago, if I remember correctly.

All continents have shifted in that timescale. Perhaps more relevant is the connection to Austronesia: the first human settlers arrived in Madagascar about 2000-2500 years ago on outrigger canoes from Borneo. Bantu people came later, around 1000 AD, so they are "colonists" somewhat in the same way as Europeans are in America, although they mixed with rather than replaced the Austronesian "first nations".

Third voyage: South America, fourth voyage: Central America.

I can confirm. I was taught this in middle school.

What's sad is the kids could figure out the roundness themselves, using just the technology of the ancients.

I wonder what other falsehoods are taught as fact.

> Greeks even estimated the circumference of the thing.

That's not a problem, the story was that the Greeks knew but those European barbarians didn't believe them until Columbus claimed that he reached India.

Well, not exactly forever, there was that whole Galileo vs Catholic Church thing.

Galileo v Church was about whether the Earth moved, not about the Earth being a sphere.

Hmm, looks like we're both wrong although you're less wrong than I am. Copernicus supported a heliocentric view and the Church didn't consider it a problem. Galileo was accused of biblical interpretation, positing that the bible isn't intended to be an authority on science, which then explodes into an anti-heliocentricism position by the Church at that time. Cute.

I'm gonna guess this confusion happens for the same reason as then: politics vs facts. This same thing happens where school boards what simplistic explanations for certain things they want deemphasized and politically biased yet detailed explanations for ones they want emphasized. Its annoying.

I have also read that Galileo was a rather aggressive fellow who made a hobby of antagonizing authority figures, and his persecution was less a matter of rigorous doctrine than of finding an excuse to make him shut up.

I don't have a source handy for that, so take it with a grain of salt, but it's an interesting take on the story.

A rule of thumb when studying history: if a side appears really stupid, or really evil, then you probably don't have all the facts.

like the Nazi's?

Godwin's law proved again!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law

Well yes. Just like the USA isn't all people always doing evil things despite Abu Graib (sp?), special rendition, Guantanamo, ... Oscar Schindler was a Nazi too and some Allies committed atrocities just as some Nazis did.

He published essentially a comic book with a character that looked just like the pope named Ignoramus.

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