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 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 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

Originally Posted by AussiePostie

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

Actually, there is good clinical and scientific evidence that second hand smoke is unhealthy.

Originally Posted by bigstick

Actually, there is good clinical and scientific evidence that second hand smoke is unhealthy.

You have apparentlly not read the WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATIONS own study on this subject- Their CONCLUSION, the results of the W.H.O study on ETS were"statistically insignificant" and there are more REAL scientific studies that reach the same conclusions. Please go to DR. M.SIEGELS blogspot "the rest of the story" as an advocate of tobacco control for 30 years even he cannot believe the junk science being used to back up smoking bans these days.

ETS is annoying,irratating and smelly to non-smokers,but it is not dangerous.

Back on topic, I have never been into ships, did a little research,wow I was surprised at how small those ships were. Defineatly a brave bunch of men who would cross the atlantic in one. I would have been a coast hugger for sure .

a great book that explains this very topic (and a lot more) is
The Coming Of Age Of The Milky Way by Timothy Ferris
i am not a huge reader really but this one is very interesting and seriously explains all your questions quite well without getting so in depth that i got bored, which is important to me

BTW you can get used copies online for 1 cent plus shipping so its hard to argue with that lol

they did not calculate the LON very well or have any real accurate way of doing this but for the LAT they had a device called a sextant (Sextant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) A sextant is an instrument generally used to measure the altitude of a celestial object above the horizon. Making this measurement is known as sighting the object, shooting the object, or taking a sight. The angle, and the time when it was measured, can be used to calculate a position line on a nautical or aeronautical chart. A common use of the sextant is to sight the sun at noon to find one's latitude. See celestial navigation for more discussion. Held horizontally, the sextant can be used to measure the angle between any two objects, such as between two lighthouses, which will, similarly, allow for calculation of a position on a chart.