From FB: "It is often overlooked that "scientifically" Chirstopher Columbus was 100% wrong..."

[redgreenandblue]

"...and the church/great powers that refused him funding were correct to do so:

Columbus thought he could reach India because an Italian geographer, Paolo Dal Pozzo Toscanelli, miscalculated the size of the earth by a factor of 4.
The Church, correctly sticking with Eratosthenes's estimate (mathematically sound and wrong by only 4%, not bad for an ancient greek!), predicted Columbus would never reach India with the ships available at the time, it was simply too far. Had a continent (unknown to both Columbus and the church) not been there, Columbus and his crew would never have returned alive.

So, "Columbus day" should be there to remind us that deep world-changing experimental results come from utterly wrong theories.
Happy bad theoretical physics day."


I love it

[geckosfeet]

1. Historically, about 99% (my guesstimate) of science has been wrong at one time or another.

But theories change and explorers, scientists and engineers are willing to go with what works.

Lets see, what is that old maxim about scientific research - research is finding out what you should have done the first time.

[Atman]

2. Thomas Edison said...

Something to the effect that by the time he invented the bulb, he had discovered 500 (?) ways that you cannot create light.

[redgreenandblue]

5. But here the math was simply wrong.

The whole expedition was done under a false premise was the point. Had Columbus stuck with the correct theory that already existed much earlier, he would have done the expedition.

[geckosfeet]

8. Agreed on that point. But I do not think that either theory was proven at the time.

And to side with a Greek rather than a fellow countryman at that time, well come on.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

3. Excellent...

I'm reposting this to Facebook because people really should remember that much of the basic science funded by the federal government through the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and other sources, may seem ridiculous at first glance, but this is the sort of fundamental research that leads us to New Worlds that we could not have imagined had we not been courageous enough to embark on the journey.

[vinny9698]

4. Also Columbus's trip was funded by the Spanish government.

If the tea party was active in the Spanish government at that time, it would have rejected the boon doggle.

[Bluenorthwest]

7. Columbus was a slave trading piece of shit.

We should remember that, and have no day named after him.