The World is Round and other little known facts
My super-cool friend, Delaney Greig, was doing research on fair trade shea butter in a small village in Burkina Faso near the Ghanaian border this summer. I didn’t realize how large the knowledge gap between rich and poor countries until she told me this story. In her own words
“I spent a lot of time working and talking with my host sister. She was 21 (a year older than me) and spoke French well so I was able to connect with her more than other family members. I brought a map of the world for the family which I got out after about two weeks to show her my home in relation to theirs. She had never seen a map of the world before and was really interested asking me where countries and places like France, the US or London were. After a moment of silence she said “have you heard what they say, the world is round? Do you believe that?”.
I was astounded. A high school educated young women didn’t know that the earth is round. “Yes”, I replied. “they have taken pictures of the world from outer space that show it is round.”
She nodded then looked at me puzzled. “But how does that work? If you keep going that way what happens?” she asked, pointing to the ocean beyond Japan at the right of the map. “The ocean comes around to the other side”. I bent the map into a sort of tube trying to show that the pacific ocean continues between Asia and the Americas. “and it earth connects at the north pole and south” I added pointing to the minimaps in the bottom corner showing the artic and antartic straight on.
The earth is round – a fact we have known for over 500 years. It seems so fundamental for our society yet remains unknown and unimportant to others and their way of life.”
I don’t quite know what to make of this- what lesson to learn- what to do about it- or even if I have to do anything about it. I’m sure that there is something profound or inspiring in her story so I figured I would try to publicize it.
What? Next you’ll be telling me the Earth goes round the sun and that we aren’t the centre of the universe!! Seriously though, that really is an amazing story from Del, it just makes you think about how important so much of the ‘important’ knowledge and facets of modern life we take for granted and have assimilated into our world view actually are.
That is so funny. I have had almost exactly the same experience. Except I didn’t have a map. There was a pause, you know, before she (in Newfoundland) and he (in India) asked me “Do you think the world is round?”
The truth is, I believe the shape of the world depends on the scale at which it is observed. The world is not round at the human scale. Especially if the human lives in a forest, or in a mountain valley. However (I think) the world becomes round at a larger-than-human scale. And who knows what shape it is as you get really really big (or really really small)…
i’ve long wanted to prove that the world is round by land and by sea. anyone can enter a glass terminal, sit in a metal tube, and exit into another terminal nearly identical to the one in which you started…
I’ve been trying for years to persuade the St. Catharines Public Library to get a globe and put it in the children’s section. They spend something like 2 million dollars a year on materials and they don’t have a globe. They don’t see the importance. Do all the schools have globes? I suspect not.
My father had a globe on his desk when I was small. As soon as I could understand the explanation of what it was I knew that the earth was round. But he was unusual; an airline pilot. There was also an octant that stood on the bookcase beside the desk…
Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, ontario