Isaac Asimov wrote the book "How Did We Find Out the Earth Is Round?"

This matches your query closely, as it's part of his famous "How Did We Find Out" science series for young readers, explaining ancient discoveries like Aristotle's observations of Earth's shadow during lunar eclipses.

Book Background

Published in 1985 by Walker & Company, Asimov's book traces humanity's shift from believing in a flat Earth to proving its sphericity through evidence like changing star views from different latitudes and ships vanishing hull-first over the horizon.

It highlights Greek thinkers like Philolaus around 450 B.C., who combined eclipse shadows, ship disappearances, and star shifts to argue for a spherical Earth at the universe's center.

Aristotle later solidified this in 350 B.C., noting only a sphere casts a round shadow every way and explaining why oceans cling to a globe via gravity toward its core.

Similar Titles

Two related children's books exist with slight title variations:

  • Patricia Lauber's "How We Learned the Earth Is Round" (1990) : Uses illustrations and simple experiments, like comparing shadows from balls, plates, and cans, to show why only spheres always cast circular shadows.
  • Unnamed "How We Found the Earth Is Round" : Focuses on Eratosthenes' stick-and-shadow method in 240 B.C. to measure Earth's 25,000-mile circumference from Syene to Alexandria.

Book Title| Author| Pub. Year| Key Focus 346
---|---|---|---
How Did We Find Out the Earth Is Round?| Isaac Asimov| 1985| Historical proofs, Greek scholars
How We Learned the Earth Is Round| Patricia Lauber| 1990| Experiments, eclipses, shadows
How We Found the Earth Is Round| Unknown| ~2023| Eratosthenes' measurement

Historical Context

Long before modern proof, ancient myths pictured Earth as flat under a dome- sky, with sun-gods racing chariots daily.

Eratosthenes calculated Earth's size accurately using noon shadows 500 miles apart, proving sphericity.

By Magellan's 1519 circumnavigation, the idea was widely accepted among scholars, debunking edge-fall fears falsely tied to Columbus.

TL;DR: Isaac Asimov is the author behind the exact phrasing in his educational classic.

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