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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7016329" data-attributes="member: 996">Eratosthenes calculated the size of the earth, assuming that it was spherical and that the sun was very large and very far away, such that its rays were essentially parallel.But, if you change the assumptions you change what you're calculating.  Assume the sun is smaller than the earth and not so far away, and thus its rays /not/ parallel, and the exact same measurements can be used to determine the distance to the sun (much closer than IRL, obviously).  The history of science is a great thing to mine for cool ideas.  Spontaneous generation is a favorite of mine.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />  Look up the physics of Aristotle for some ideas, too.  Like why and how things fall.... It'll still be the same number of hours into the day on Flat Earth, but the angle of the sun in the sky will change as you travel east-west.  Maybe quite a bit depending on how big the world is and how far away the sun.   For instance, at noon, the sun is directly overhead, at the center of the world (Jerusalem, if you're a Medieval European).  But, if you're  half way to the western edge the sun's already past that relative point.  Assuming the sun is traveling in a nice circular path.  If it vaults to it's cruising altitude first thing in the morning, and drives straight across the world, it'll be even more pronounced.Anyway, yes, you'll have time zones, but they won't mean the same thing: it's noon and the proportion of morning to afternoon that'll change.  Maybe barely noticeably (smallish earth, sun far away), maybe almost comically - sun is small and it's orbit just barely misses each edge of the relatively large earth (or, even more so if the sun cruises at one altitude all day). They might appear distorted, again, if you can travel pretty close to an edge, and the celestial sphere is not far beyond that edge...Accuracy is still hard in a medieval world.  But some engineering-obsessed Lawful Empire like Rome or Nerath might have very accurate maps indeed.It doesn't take many nor very high hills to screw that up.  Then there's the nature of vision.  One old theory about vision (I am not making this up, I swear) was that the eyes emitted rays, and you could see what the rays touched.  Air and Light are transparent to those rays, and darkness (and a lot of other things) opaque to them. You need light to see because it displaces darkness, not because you see reflected light.  Anyway, under that model, the range of vision could be quite limited.  Rather like 60' darkvision, really.  See so far, and no further. LoS notwithstanding.There may be nothing on the bottom side.  Or there may be spiders and other things that can walk on ceilings (that's a new spin on Drow and their reverence for Lolth).  Or y'know, very hungry piercers with no one to drop on...</blockquote>

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