But that the univer in whibsp;we live has existed only for six or ven thousand years may be regarded as an altogether exploded idea.
The earth, as everybody knows nowadays, is a spheroid, a sphere slightly presd, e fashion, with a diameter of nearly 8,000 miles.
Its spheribsp; shape has been known at least to a limited number of intelligent people for nearly 2,500 years, but before that time it was suppod to be flat, and various ideas whibsp;now em fantastibsp;were eained about its relations to the sky and the stars and plas.
We know now that it rotates upon its axis (whibsp;is about 24 miles shorter than its equatorial diameter) every twenty-four hours, and that this is the bsp;of the alternations of day and night, that it circles about the sun in a slightly distorted and slowly variable oval path in a year.
Its distanbsp;from the sun varies between y-one and a half millions at its and y-four and a half million miles.
About the earth circles a smaller sphere, the moon, at an average distanbsp;of 239,000 miles.
But that the univer in whibsp;we live has existed only for six or ven thousand years may be regarded as an altogether exploded idea.
The earth, as everybody knows nowadays, is a spheroid, a sphere slightly presd, e fashion, with a diameter of nearly 8,000 miles.
Its spheribsp; shape has been known at least to a limited number of intelligent people for nearly 2,500 years, but before that time it was suppod to be flat, and various ideas whibsp;now em fantastibsp;were eained about its relations to the sky and the stars and plas.