• DOI:10.1179/008228810X12755564743525
• Corpus ID: 129758198

Origins of the Idea of Antipodes: Errors, Assumptions, and a Bare Few Facts

@article{Stallard2010OriginsOT,
  title={Origins of the Idea of Antipodes: Errors, Assumptions, and a Bare Few Facts},
  author={Avan Judd Stallard},
  journal={Terrae Incognitae},
  year={2010},
  volume={42},
  pages={34 - 51}
}

• A. Stallard
• Published 1 September 2010
• Physics
• Terrae Incognitae

Abstract In ancient times, philosophers conceived a suite of remarkable ideas about the southern hemisphere of the earth. First, they figured that there was a southern hemisphere. Second, they figured it was potentially habitable. And, third, they figured that there may well be a great land there. The question is, who conceived what, when, and why? Modern scholarship provides answers to these questions — explaining, for example, that the Antipodes were posited based on symmetry, or perhaps because the northern hemisphere needed a counterbalance. These and many other answers to these questions are wrong, as demonstrated in this article.