Working with Geographic and Projected Coordinate Systems
Contrary to what some may believe, the Earth is not flat. In fact, early Greek people began theorizing that the Earth was not flat as early as 500 BC when Pythagoras proposed that it was round. Pythagoras derived his theory that the Earth was round based on the sunlight that is projected off the Moon’s surface. He noted that the line between the light and dark zones of the Moon is curved. Thus, he concluded that the Moon was a sphere, and thus, all celestial bodies must also be spheres.
Sometime between 384 and 322 BC, Aristotle, another Greek philosopher, added additional evidence supporting the spherical Earth model. His evidence came from studying the consistency in the curvature of lunar eclipses and noted that only a spherical Earth could produce such consistency.
Aristotle also observed that, as the Greek people sailed for new lands in the north and south, there were changes in the altitude of constellations...
