Re: Re[2]: interview with Oracle
- From: Mladen Gogala <gogala@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: jonathan@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 01 Jul 2005 02:47:18 +0000
On 06/30/2005 10:19:16 PM, Jonathan Gennick wrote:
> Thursday, June 30, 2005, 4:33:02 PM, Dougie McGibbon (DMcGibbon@xxxxxxxxxxxx)
> wrote:
> DM> If you were transported back into the 14th century, how would you convince
> DM> the pope that the Earth was round ?
>
> I was discussing this very problem with a neighbor kid today<grin>.
Actually, there was a guy who has done it a little bit before you.
His name was Pythagoras of Samos and he was a Greek. His argument
was based on the fact that when a ship is approaching the port, the
first thing that is visible is mast, with the sail on it. If the Earth
was flat, it wouldn't be possible, everything would be visible exactly
at the same time. More then that, he actually measured the curvature of
the Earth, by measuring the angle under which he can see the ship.
By observing the same event from several ports, he concluded that the
only shape that makes it possible is a sphere.
That argument would be convincing even a little bit later, when popes
were around. Of course, the correctness of the argument wouldn't have
prevented you from being used as a fuel, as was shown by Giordano Bruno's
example.
--
Mladen Gogala
Oracle DBA
--
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