How was the evidence used to develop the theory that the earth is spherical?
Ancient civilizations noticed that things disappear at certain distance on the sea. But, I don’t really think that was the driving hypothesis for them. They were already well versed in studying the sun, moon, and movement of the constellations, and most likely, that’s what led to a spherical earth idea (maybe it was a cylinder at first), and after that, the idea that the earth was not the center of the universe. People dropping out of plain eyesight may have given rise to torrential stories, but I believe it stirred more stories of torrent and the edges of the world than was actually attributed to spherical significance of the earth.
