Talk:Empirical evidence for the spherical shape of Earth

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this is not proof of anything[edit]

the first paragraph of the section labelled Observation of constellations on North and South hemispheres at different seasons reads: "The fact that some stars are only visible from either the north or south poles must mean that the two observation spots are on opposite sides of Earth, which is not possible if Earth is a single-sided disk, but is possible for other shapes (like a sphere, but also any other convex shape like a donut or dumbbell)."

this is wrong for two different reasons:

1. it uses an a priori assumption that the Earth has poles, and therefore cannot be used to prove that the Earth is a sphere because that is the assumption being made to start with. only a sphere would have poles, so the existence of poles means that you are assuming the Earth is sphere. you cannot "prove" the thing you are assuming to be true.

2. in an earlier section of the article it was noted that as long ago as Aristotle it had been observed that different stars are visible from different points on the surface of the Earth. the actual example given was that, and I quote: "some stars are visible from Egypt which are not visible from Europe." Europe and Egypt are not on opposite sides of the Earth. therefore, going back to the quote about the poles, the observation that "some stars are only visible from either the north or south poles" does not prove, as claimed, that those spots are on opposite sides of the Earth. it merely shows that they are on different points on the surface of a not-flat Earth.

to be clear, I do believe the Earth is a sphere, but this unreferenced paragraph about polar observations has no place in a list of proofs of that point, so I have deleted it. Cottonshirt τ 06:08, 16 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Both good points. Obviously no star is visible only from one pole or the other. Something something different latitudes. —Tamfang (talk) 00:34, 17 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I must say when I saw this new section on my watchlist I was very much expecting something else lol. Gaismagorm (talk) 12:26, 17 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Nor are you alone in that. —Tamfang (talk) 00:09, 18 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]