Thread: In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue...

Since its St Paddy's day I thought I would ask this question.

Back in the day people thought if you traveled too far over the ocean you would fall off and be eaten by terrible monsters. So why did they believe that? Also how about if you traveled too far on land, what would happen to you? Also come to think of it how did they know where they were on the ocean in those days. Maybe when they fell off they knew they went too far.

Maybe its all propaganda fed to us to lull us into complacency. Maybe they had modern cities and airplanes and space travel and along came global warming and destroyed those advanced civilizations and all those people, why they...Hey this question isn't my idea Cousin Festus wants to know though.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Since its St Paddy's day I thought I would ask this question.

Back in the day people thought if you traveled too far over the ocean you would fall off and be eaten by terrible monsters. So why did they believe that? Also how about if you traveled too far on land, what would happen to you? Also come to think of it how did they know where they were on the ocean in those days. Maybe when they fell off they knew they went too far.

Maybe its all propaganda fed to us to lull us into complacency. Maybe they had modern cities and airplanes and space travel and along came global warming and destroyed those advanced civilizations and all those people, why they...Hey this question isn't my idea Cousin Festus wants to know though.

thebigspendur,

A lot of the story connected with Columbus and his voyages is pure hokum. The idea that you would fall off the edge of the earth was one that was only held by the uneducated.

Scholars and scientists of Columbus's day didn't oppose his plan because they thought his voyage would result in his expedition falling off the edge of the earth. They knew the earth was round by that time. They opposed Columbus because they correctly assumed that he had miscalculated the diameter of the earth, which would make his voyage longer than he anticipated. And it was. His crew almost mutinied because they were running out of food and fresh water.

As for knowing where you were...Ancient mariners used a number of different methods to determine where they were. Initially, they simply stayed close to land and used landmarks. Later they used astrolabes to determine their latitude.

It wasn't until the 18th century that mariners were finally able to determine their longitude. John Harrison developed a timepiece that would keep accurate time in seafaring conditions. See this link: John Harrison and the Longitude problem : Royal Observatory & history of astronomy : Astronomy fact files : Astronomy & time : Explore online : NMM

I hope this helps...

I watched a documentary recently on how they eventually did calculate the Earth's diameter. A team of French scientists travelled to Peru. After years of scaling the mountains and triangulating measurements between markers they painstakingly put on the peaks of each mountain in a designated range of topography, they were able to calculate one degree of longitude, I believe, and compare that to an existing measurement. Then they solved for x and confirmed Newton's hypothesis about the Earth being more grapefruit-shaped than spherical. That's why they travelled to the equator.

During their trip, Charles Marie de La Condamine discovered not only rubber, but pioneered the Metric system.

But most importantly of all, he learned the importance of friendship.

(I made that last one up)

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Since its St Paddy's day I thought I would ask this question.

Back in the day people thought if you traveled too far over the ocean you would fall off and be eaten by terrible monsters. So why did they believe that?

Probably for the same reasons that people today think that shaving with a straight razor is dangerous or that second hand smoke is dangerous or that anyone named abdul is dangerous.If people are told something often enough, even a lie, it will become the truth to them

Back in the day people thought if you traveled too far over the ocean you would fall off and be eaten by terrible monsters. So why did they believe that? Also how about if you traveled too far on land, what would happen to you? Also come to think of it how did they know where they were on the ocean in those days. Maybe when they fell off they knew they went too far.

Euclidean Geometry.

Your welcome.
David

I guess they believed it because sometimes people went off on these voyages and were never seen again.

There are also weird things that happen at sea, storms, giant creatures they'd never have seen before, St Elmos fire...

So the sailors that made it back would have been telling these stories about what they'd seen, and probably embellishing some , and these rumours of the edge of the earth and creatures from the pits of Hell would have started.

And then people would start believing that those who didnt come back had been taken by these creatures, or fallen off the edge of the earth.

What do you mean the earth is ROUND?!?!? Sacrilege! Burn him, burn him.

Please pass this onto Cousin Festus and ask him to join me in membership of this worthy club: The Flat Earth Society

Claiming the earth is flat was probably just stories seamen told to ignorant landlubbers. The fact that the earth is round was known already in the ancient Greece.

On those times there were few methods to determine ships position. They could find out the latitude (north-south position from any reference point that been agreed beforehand) observing stars with various devices and comparing it to star maps. Longitude (east-west) was more complicated and there was no fool proof method before decent chronometer was innovated. Determining ships speed was probably how they tried to guess their east/west position. Only way you could even somehow find out the speed was using hand log and/or observing current/wind speeds and directions.
Also marine charts were totally different than today. They were very primitive and inaccurate and used several different projections with various reference points (nowadays equator and Greenwich UK).

Mariners of today have it much more difficult. You can no more lie to your wife of being caught by a sea monster if coming back home gets little late.

Originally Posted by Blade Wielder

But most importantly of all, he learned the importance of friendship.

(I made that last one up)

Or cribbed it off the last sentence of practically every summary note for kids' fiction in the library catalog. (I catalog some of those, among other things ... I know too well whereof I speak.)

~Rich

Originally Posted by Stubear

I guess they believed it because sometimes people went off on these voyages and were never seen again.

There are also weird things that happen at sea, storms, giant creatures they'd never have seen before, St Elmos fire...

So the sailors that made it back would have been telling these stories about what they'd seen, and probably embellishing some , and these rumours of the edge of the earth and creatures from the pits of Hell would have started.

And then people would start believing that those who didnt come back had been taken by these creatures, or fallen off the edge of the earth.

What he said

Jordan