Chris: Hey guys, guess what! The earth is round! Science: Yeah we've known since, like, 500 BC. Chris: And it's around 30,000 km in diameter. Science: Yeah, we've know since... Wait... don't you mean 40,000 km? Chris: Nope, Ptolemy, Eratosthenes, Aristotle, all wrong! Also, Asia stretches at more than 220° around the world. Science: Are you sure you don't you mean under 180°? Chris: Nope, once again, all the sources that disagree with me are wrong. Science: 'kay... Chris: Therefore by my calculations it is only around 4,000 km to China going west, and I'm going to prove it! Science: Right then, good luck with that. *three months pass* Chris: I'm in CHINA! Science: What? Chris: Greetings people of China, I have come to trade for your silk and tea and various spices. Science: What? Chris: I see. You have no silk, or tea or various spices. Obviously these are only islands off the coast of China. Kidnap some of the more important looking ones, they will lead us to the Chinese mainland. Science: WHAT? Amerigo: Excuse me, Science, I do believe it is likely that he has accidentally discovered an entirely new continent. Science: Yeah, congratulations, we are naming it after you. Amerigo: Why me? Chris: GREETINGS PEOPLE OF CHINA! Amerigo: I see. While Christopher Columbus' reputation has suffered greatly, and perhaps excessively, under historical review it should be pointed out that the notion that he alone believed the world was round while all the learned men of the day told him it was flat is an early 18th century fantasy. The truly revolutionary ideas that made his voyages possible (at least in his own mind) consisted of a new estimate of the diameter of the Earth and an unconventional estimate of the size of Asia. In both cases Columbus' numbers disagreed greatly with the commonly accepted numbers of the day, what "science" knew at the time. Of course we now know that the commonly accepted numbers of the day were much, much closer to reality. If the Americas had not been there Columbus would be an obscure footnote in history, a name on small a monument in southwestern Spain bearing the epitaph "I really thought we would have been there by now."
