Aristotle and "On The Heaven" (Aristotle's Solar system model)

 

A long time ago, in 340 BC Greek Great Greek Philosopher Aristotle, 

released his book in which he wrote two good arguments for believing that

the earth is a round sphere, not a flat plate or disk. First, he realized that the lunar eclipse occurs when

 the earth came in between the moon and sun.

He also noticed that the shadow of the earth on the moon during lunar 

eclipse was always round, and this was possible only if the earth was 

a round sphere, if it was a flat disk the shadow on the moon would have 

been elongated and elliptical, unless the sun was directly under the center

of the disk(flat earth).

Secondly, As we all know that greeks were great travelers and explorers

due to their travels, they noticed that the north star appeared lower

in the sky in the southern region than in the northern region.

Aristotle also estimated that the circumference of the earth is 400000

stadia in his book. However, it is not known exactly what length stadia was,

But it may be equal to 200 yards(Written in the book "A Brief History Of Time")

which is twice the currently accepted figure

The Greeks even had the third argument in which they said that

if the earth is a flat disk why we first see the sail of a ship coming over

horizon before the hull(the frame or body of a ship).

Aristotle's Model:

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Credits:

I read this part in Great Stephen Hawking's book "A Brief History Of Time"

I found it interesting so I shared it here.