Many stories about Christopher Columbus say that he set out on his voyage to prove that the earth was round. There are tales of Columbus having a difficult time finding sailors to go with him because they were afraid that the ship would fall off the edge of the ocean.
Did Columbus know the earth was round? Definitely yes! In fact, the Greeks thought that the earth was round as early as the 6th century B.C. By the time Columbus sailed in 1492, almost no one believed that the earth was flat.
The big question for Columbus was not the shape of the earth but the size of it. Columbus thought the ocean would be small enough for him to sail to India by going west. Reaching India by sailing east was difficult because Africa blocked the way.
Columbus guessed that the earth's circumference (the distance around the earth) was about 12,000 miles. He was sure that he could sail across the ocean and reach India long before his supplies ran out.
As it turns out, Columbus was wrong. The earth has a circumference of almost 25,000 miles, more than double what Columbus thought.
When Columbus landed in America, he thought he had reached India. He wasn't even half way there. Had Columbus not arrived in America, he and his crew would have starved long before they reached Asia.
Source: wordville.com/columbus/reading/ColumbusEarth.html Did Columbus Know the Earth Was Round?
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