Bob Kolker: Liked your posts re the motions of the earth. It is a
great story in itself how mankind went from unanimous belief in the
unmoving flat earth, to broad acceptance that the earth was a sphere
spinning in space. We unfortunately take this story for granted, but it
actually involved an incredible amount of discovery and work and pain.

I once owned a little book that I bought on sale for 25 cents. It was
the step by step story how we went from the flat earth to the spinning
sphere. It contained many items that we don't even hear about these
days, and unhappily are not taught our children. For example, if there
were an internet way back then, they would be arguing as to why a ship
coming into harbour had the top of its mast first seen rather than its
main body. IIRC about 20 reasons were given for abandoning the flat
earth in favor of the spinning sphere.
I think that the whole process of belief change was an exciting story
and illustrative as to how science works.