In all that time they never bothered to do the calculations described in the Greek work they were arguing about. The really embarrassing thing was that the Spanish argued about it (which numbers were correct) for quite some time then finally coughed up the Pesos* to sail across the Atlantic. You try walking through bandit infested wilderness with a merchant's caravan and see if you can make good time. His calculations on the size of Asia were a lot easier to understand as Marco Polo's idea of "a day's journey" turned out to be less than 5 miles. Some monk had made a mistake copying a Greek manuscript so Christopher Columbus saw that and since it fit his preconceptions, it *had* to be right (the original, correct number was also around). They rightly figured that Columbus dirt have the supplies to make it to India with the ships he had, he just got lucky that there was a previously unknown continent right where he needed it to be to survive the journey. Mad_Radhu: Not only did most educated people know the Earth was round, they knew it the diameter of the Earth to a pretty reasonable accuracy for the tools they had.
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