Waters Gate Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 More than 2000 years ago, a ancient greek astronomer managed to quite accuratly calculate the circumference of the earth. His name was Eratosthenes and you can read about him on wikipedia here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes Not only did Eratosthenes quite accuratly calculated that circumference, he also made a quite accurate calculation on the earths axial tilt, and of the distance between the planet and the sun. How did he do it? Well afaik this was done trough trianglulation math. Different observations were made from different points on earth at certain set distance's and certain times to calculate the deviations in angle's in which observations were made, which then was used to culaculate the curveture of eath. And because of this knowledge, he could also make an acurate map with longitude's and lattitude's. So ... Why don't the Maesters do stuff like this.? Not enough time? Too much limited to one spot? I guess most stargazing maesters are centered around Oldtown. Yet we had Maester Luwin up north Stargazin too. And what about all those other civilizations across the woiaf that could potentially stargaze? Or is it maybe that Terros it's trajectory in relation to other objects is too erratic to make reliable observations? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhaegar Estellion Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Because Planetos is flat. It is known... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonardo Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 I think Westeros' knowledge of astronomy explains a lot of this Or rather lack of. The science of astronomy basically reached its peak in terms of overall knowledge in terms of what can be gleaned from earth itself thousands of years before we even began to stumble onto the beginnings of biology. I mean their naval navigation is soooo drastically behind what they should be capable of in terms of comparison to our own history. Sailing out of land is considered ill advised.... They seem to have many of our ideas of the era but don't extrapolate them; we know they have a decent amount of mathematics but don't seem to apply them to anything but warfare or architecture, and those in rare spurts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waters Gate Posted March 8, 2015 Author Share Posted March 8, 2015 Well knwoledge of triangular math is rather important, though it seems weird that they wouldn't have attained a sufficient amount of it by now, again such stuff was known by such ancient people like Summerians and greeks in our history, So even if it wasn't known in Westeros it would be weird if that knowledge wouldn't be known in any place to eventually spread from. And observations of astral objects sitting at different angle's depending on the viewpoint or say season would be easily made, and easily lead to the fundamental questions that would ask for such a mathematical sollution. Besides, the maesters do a fair bit of observing, and seem to have some knowledge on how to predict the seasons trough their observations, one wonders what the nature of their metrics are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Arthur Hightower Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 How do we know they don't? Really we don't know any mathematics or astronomy based maesters from whom to learn such information from. It may be that the first Sam chapter in TWoW will be him listening to Archmaester Vaellyn saying how the estimates made by some Ghiscari mathematician 5,000 years ago were wrong, and that the Earth is only 10,000 miles in diameter, and proclaiming he will sail west to Asshai. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poodle Pup From Astapor Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 It's possible that they did and forgot, maybe no one cared. Maybe they have someone doing it in Oldtown now and it's not mentioned, because people worry about other things. I think Westeros' knowledge of astronomy explains a lot of this Or rather lack of. The science of astronomy basically reached its peak in terms of overall knowledge in terms of what can be gleaned from earth itself thousands of years before we even began to stumble onto the beginnings of biology. I mean their naval navigation is soooo drastically behind what they should be capable of in terms of comparison to our own history. Sailing out of land is considered ill advised.... They seem to have many of our ideas of the era but don't extrapolate them; we know they have a decent amount of mathematics but don't seem to apply them to anything but warfare or architecture, and those in rare spurts. I don't think that's because of navigation though, that's because of their ships. Their galleys are bad for open sea. The best sea faring ships belong to Summer Islanders and maybe Ibbenese. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Arthur Hightower Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Because Planetos is flat. It is known... It is round, and educated people in westeros know it is round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BalerionTheCat Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Because GRRM doesn't know the circumference of his own world. And he doesn't intend to have someone sailing the Sunset Sea, between Essos and Westeros. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mithras Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Al-Biruni was able to measure the radius of Earth with 0.3% error a thousand years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyenon15 Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 My theory is that magic makes it impossible to get accurate calculations. Greece didn't have to account for magic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aryagonnakill#2 Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Because the maesters secretly spend all their time plotting to destroy other guilds/cults/magic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bright Blue Eyes Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Why do you assume they don't? Is there any quote of a Maester stating that or something? Otherwise I posit the theory that Maesters don't know that there are two bones in somebody's forearm. After all, it was never written that they do know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aerys Blackfyre Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Because GRRM doesn't know the circumference of his own world. And he doesn't intend to have someone sailing the Sunset Sea, between Essos and Westeros. because he doesn't WANT to reveal the circumference of Planetos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EastTymor Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 The circumference of Planetos is Euron. It is known. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Arthur Hightower Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Why do you assume they don't? Is there any quote of a Maester stating that or something? Otherwise I posit the theory that Maesters don't know that there are two bones in somebody's forearm. After all, it was never written that they do know. :agree: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waters Gate Posted March 8, 2015 Author Share Posted March 8, 2015 Why do you assume they don't? Is there any quote of a Maester stating that or something? Otherwise I posit the theory that Maesters don't know that there are two bones in somebody's forearm. After all, it was never written that they do know. It's not in the world of ice and fire. And it's kinda rediculous to make a book of the world as Maester and then not mentioning the circumference if one would know it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bright Blue Eyes Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 It's not in the world of ice and fire. And it's kinda rediculous to make a book of the world as Maester and then not mentioning the circumference if one would know it. Ok. Then, please, do quote the population of Gulltown out of TWoIaF. It's one of the five big cities, should be kinda ridiculous not to include it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSovereignGrave Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 It's not in the world of ice and fire. And it's kinda rediculous to make a book of the world as Maester and then not mentioning the circumference if one would know it. The World of Ice and Fire is primarily about the known history of the known world (though predominantly Westeros); how is it necessary for the circumference of the world to be stated? And would Robert/Joffrey/Tommen care even a little about such a detail? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimim Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Why do you assume they don't? Is there any quote of a Maester stating that or something? Otherwise I posit the theory that Maesters don't know that there are two bones in somebody's forearm. After all, it was never written that they do know. This. If there was a Westerosi Columbus, using Dornish funding to sail the Sunset Sea to reach YiTi, yeah, it would come up, but otherwise? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Light a wight tonight Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 We only know a few disciplines that the links of a Maester's chain signify. Martin only tells us things that serve to advance the plot. Since nobody's circumnavigating the planet we don't need to know how far around it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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