Who was the man who sayed the earth was round?

Answer 1

The ancient Greek astronomer Aristarchus is the earliest person known to have written about the heliocentric model of the solar system. Ideas like this do not emerge in a vacuum; there are other, earlier observers whose names have not survived the 23 centuries since, who shared or contributed to the concept.

Aristarchus' ideas were not without some controversy; the Stoic philosopher Cleanthes wanted Aristarchus tried on charges of heresy. And the math-heavy idea-driven concept of the heliocentric theory was considerably at odds with the "You can see it with your own eyes!" geocentric model argued by Aristotle.

Like modern politicians, Aristotle was a good debater, whose simple explanations persuaded people to adopt obviously-true ideas that would not be proven false for another 15 centuries. And yet in astronomy, in medicine, in physics, in chemistry, in everything Aristotle wrote about, his ideas were wrong-headed and blind.

After Aristotle, it took 1800 years for Copernicus to revive the heliocentric model of the solar system.