Quote:No seriously. I have to ask. As the above question is pretty concerning, as it demonstrates a very shaky grasp of the scientific method. Scientific consensus stands up until a better theory comes along. The ancient Greeks has a pretty good idea the world was round, but Columbus generally is credited with demonstrating it - erroneously - the vikings got there several centuries earlier... Part of the reason it took so sodding long was the insistence that the bible was perfect and as such its claims of a flat earth were true.
Actually, the reason that most of Queen Isabella's advisers told her Columbus wouldn't get anywhere was not that they thought the world was flat. It was that they knew it was round, had a fairly good idea of how big it was, and didn't know that there was this whacking great continent in the middle of all that empty ocean between them and China. From their point of view, it was just too far to go. Columbus managed to sell Isabella on the idea that the distance was a lot less, and got her to fund his trip.
Hell, he may well have known about the Viking colonies and figured, based on their distance, that they -had- to have found the northern coast of China, so the mathematically-known distance had to be wrong...
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Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.