The answer to the question about Columbus should technically be true

[Olivia]

The question is "People believed the earth was flat before Columbus." Before Columbus existed, people believed the world was flat. By the time he "discovered" America in 1492, people knew it was round, but people still thought it was flat before Columbus.

[johnnywhitebread]

That's a fair point. Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the Earth after Aristotle posited that it was spherical. Before Aristotle, people believed the Earth was flat, which is also before Columbus' time, so the answer should be true.

The question that should be asked that would be false would read "Immediately before Columbus discovered the West Indies, people believed the Earth was flat."

[Power of Seven]

Except that's wrong. Almost nobody believed that the Earth was flat in Europe. It was known before, during, and after Christopher Columbus's voyage that the Earth was round.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_flat_Earth

[Olivia]

Originally posted by Power of Seven:

Except that's wrong. Almost nobody believed that the Earth was flat in Europe. It was known before, during, and after Christopher Columbus's voyage that the Earth was round.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_flat_Earth

I know that. What I'm saying is that it doesn't specify when before Columbus, it just says before Columbus. Before Columbus could mean 1491, or it could mean 500BC.

[VM]

Thank you for your feedback!

I'll review this fact after finishing my work on upcoming DLC.

Cheers!

[ellisD]

Originally posted by johnnywhitebread:

That's a fair point. Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the Earth after Aristotle posited that it was spherical. Before Aristotle, people believed the Earth was flat, which is also before Columbus' time, so the answer should be true.

The question that should be asked that would be false would read "Immediately before Columbus discovered the West Indies, people believed the Earth was flat."

"Until Columbus discovered the West Indies, people believed the Earth was flat." Maybe sounds better?

[abbrian]

I know that one of the earliest medieval science books was called, "Sphere" based on the shape of the earth. This was written around 1250ish. So, people definitely knew the shape of the earth was round.