CAPTAIN GG: Σφαιρική Γη

Mom: Children, come here. The fried potatoes are ready. Come now while they’re hot!

Mom shouted as loudly as she could. Her voice concealed her characteristic enthusiasm, as if frying potatoes was the greatest and most commendable achievement of her life. Indeed, frying potatoes is not an easy and simple task at all, and Mr. A’s mother really makes delicious fried potatoes.

Mr. A: Mom, should I call my friend Daphne to come over and eat with us? She also really likes the fried potatoes you make.

These two have so much fun when they’re together! They both come up with unique ideas for games and experiments. Mr. A really wanted to see Daphne today. She said she would come as soon as she can. Within a few minutes, Daphne appears, energetic and disheveled as always.

Daphne: Did I come quickly? What delicious food are we going to eat today?

Mr. A: Today, we have Mom’s fantastic fried potatoes.

Daphne: Let’s eat your mother’s delicious potatoes first, and then we can talk about scientific topics. We don’t want the potatoes to get cold. Mr. A, could you please explain what’s going on with you and fried potatoes that captivate you so much?

Mr. A: Mostly, I’m fascinated by how the spherical potato is sliced into flat pieces that transform from white sticks into a golden, fragrant, crispy delight.

Mom: What you just said sounds like a poem by the Nobel laureate, Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. In his “Ode to the Small and Insignificant,” he wrote an ode to the fried potato, which sounds exactly like what you just said.

They have all gathered around the table, waiting for Mom to fill their plates with potatoes. Now Mr. A continues with his own hymn to the fried potato:

Mr Α: You put a fried potato in your mouth. You take a bite. It’s crispy. You hear in your ears the distinctive noise made by your teeth with the outer, crispy layer of the fried potato. Daphne listened to him with devout devotion and admiration.

Now Mr. A was sitting and listening to the beautiful words that Daphne was saying about him. He thought that it was the first time in his life that another person was speaking beautiful words about him without being a relative. Until now, it had been common for kind words to come only from his mother and father. It was a new experience to receive compliments and praise from another person who was the same age as him. He liked what Daphne was saying so much that he wanted her to continue telling him those things.

Mom: “Your dad, Daphne, Mr. Vag, is an astronomer, isn’t he?” He must know well that our Earth is round. I don’t understand at all why some people believe it’s flat.

Daphne: Yes, my dad is an astronomer. He knows very well the exact distance in kilometers between the Moon and Earth!

Mom: Kids, Captain GG is here to discuss the shape of the Earth. Having traveled by ship on all the seas of the Earth, he can help us understand.

Dad: Well, I, for one, say that the Earth is spherical.

Mr. A: Are there people who believe the Earth is flat? After all, we have seen all the other planets in our solar system to be round. Why should only one planet be flat? Doesn’t it sound crazy to you how nature would make one out of the 8 planets flat?!

Little A: In school, I learned that the phases of the moon are the shadow of the Earth on the moon. If the Earth were flat, the Moon would be striped! It would be nice if we had a striped moon; it would match my striped pajamas.

Mom: The way I’m looking at the shape now, I realize there isn’t a dark side of the moon. I don’t understand. Were Pink Floyd lying to us? Indeed, there is no dark side of the moon. It’s better to say instead of ‘dark,’ ‘the far side’ or ‘the distant side.’ The motion of the Moon around the Earth is gravitationally locked. From Earth, we always see the same side of the Moon.

Captain GG: Hello! I’ve come and heard your questions! Do you want me to tell you from my experience how I have experienced the curvature of the Earth? Do you know that ships disappear as they move away towards the horizon?

Daphne: Is it true that the bottom part of them disappears first? Is this evidence that the Earth is spherical?

Captain GG: You are right, Daphne. I’ve seen it many times.

Daphne: And is the sky in the northern hemisphere of Earth different from the sky in the southern hemisphere?

Captain GG: Indeed, the sky in the northern hemisphere of Earth is dominated by the constellations of the Big and Little Dipper.

Little A: The two saucepans, isn’t it?

Captain GG: You have a great imagination, Little A! On the other hand, the sky in the southern hemisphere of Earth contains the well-known Small and Large Magellanic Clouds, which are called the Magellanic Clouds. It also includes the constellation known as the ‘Southern Cross.’

Mom: I also know that the Southern Cross, beyond the album with the musical poems of the poet Cavafy, is also a constellation in the southern sky.

Captain GG: That’s right. I remember one night when I was traveling. The sea was very calm, and the weather was very good. Everything was going very well, and we could relax for a while. We decided to watch a movie together that I had wanted to see for a long time. It was the movie “1492” about the voyages of Christopher Columbus and the discovery of America.

Mom: Wonderful music. The Greek composer Vangelis Papathanassiou wrote it. There was a time when I used to listen to Vangelis’ album constantly. I imagined that I was also traveling around the Earth. I was trying to answer to myself how I would interact with the people I would find there.

Captain GG: Indeed, Columbus was very brave, fearless, and adventurous. From Spain and Portugal, which were the usual starting points, people usually went east to reach India and Japan. He insisted on traveling west because he believed the Earth was round like an orange, instead of going east like everyone else. Of course, he didn’t find India but instead discovered America! However, his idea was correct, and he was later proven right!

Mr. A: I’ve also seen the movie. In the first scene of the movie, looking at the ships disappearing over the horizon, Columbus confidently says about the Earth: “It is round like this,” while holding an orange.

Dad: The ancient Greeks were the first to say that the Earth is round like an orange or a melon. Eratosthenes, using the fact that the Sun is very far away and its rays reach the Earth nearly vertically, measured the distance between two cities in Egypt (Alexandria and Syene) and was able to calculate the Earth’s circumference. The value he calculated is very close to the value we find now. Indeed, the ancient Greeks, without the ability to observe the Earth from the outside, had indirectly found that the Earth is round.

Mr. A: We’ve been to the Moon, although, as we mentioned, many people question it. We have seen from there that the Earth is round. From here on Earth, we can see that the Moon is round. We have seen the Moon become very large as well. We have seen it turn red too.

Dad: To summarize: How do we know that the Earth is round?

Little A: From the fact that the Moon has phases and from the fact that the Moon isn’t striped like my pajamas.

Mom: From the correct intuition of the great explorer Christopher Columbus who said it’s round like an orange.

Mr. A: From what we’ve seen of it from the outside (from the Moon and the International Space Station).

Daphne: From the experiment conducted by Eratosthenes.

Captain GG: When ships disappear as they pass the horizon.

Daphne: And my dad would say that the skies of the northern and southern hemispheres of Earth contain different constellations: the Little and Big Dipper in the northern hemisphere and the Magellanic Clouds and the Southern Cross in the southern hemisphere.

Mom: In the end, a flat Earth is a big disappointment, and not even tasty like fried potatoes! (laughter) A thousand thanks to all of you; I had a wonderful evening.

– THE END –