![]() The concept of a spherical Earth displaced earlier beliefs in a flat Earth: In early Mesopotamian mythology, the world was portrayed as a disk floating in the ocean with a hemispherical sky-dome above, and this forms the premise for early world maps like those of Anaximander and Hecataeus of Miletus. A practical demonstration of Earth's sphericity was achieved by Ferdinand Magellan and Juan Sebastián Elcano's circumnavigation (1519–1522). This knowledge was gradually adopted throughout the Old World during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. In the 3rd century BC, Hellenistic astronomy established the roughly spherical shape of Earth as a physical fact and calculated the Earth's circumference. The earliest documented mention of the concept dates from around the 5th century BC, when it appears in the writings of Greek philosophers. Spherical Earth or Earth's curvature refers to the approximation of figure of the Earth as a sphere. The curvature becomes more readily apparent above 50,000 feet passengers on the now-grounded supersonic Concorde jet were often treated to a view of the curved horizon while flying at 60,000 feet.Image from space: The curved surface of the spherical planet Earth Medieval artistic representation of a spherical Earth – with compartments representing earth, air, and water (c. According to a 2008 paper in the journal Applied Optics, the Earth's curve becomes subtly visible at an altitude of around 35,000 feet, as long as the observer has at least a 60 degree field of view (which may be difficult from a passenger plane window). ![]() ![]() If you get lucky enough to get an unobscured view of the horizon and a high enough commercial flight, you might even be able to make out the curvature of the Earth with the naked eye. ![]() ![]() You won't have to retrace your steps to land where you started. Anyone can circumnavigate the globe nowadays there are even travel firms, like AirTreks, that specialize in multi-stop, round-the-world routes. This one should cost you considerably less than $1 million, though you will have to drop a few thousand dollars. ![]()
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