100 facts from Mental Floss about planet Earth

Planet Earth is a very interesting planet and Mental Floss compiled 100 facts about it for the above video. One of my favourites:

17. THE OLDEST SURVIVING GLOBE WAS CREATED IN 1492 BY A GERMAN ASTRONOMER NAMED MARTIN BEHAIM.

The globe, named Erdapfel (which literally means “Earth apple”), is an important piece of history that documents our simultaneously broad and limited understanding of the Earth. It contains myriad errors, including a couple of mythological islands throughout the Atlantic ocean. But give Behaim a break—he didn’t have Google Earth to fact check.

Earth apple, what a concept! And one of those mythological islands is Saint Brendan’s Island, “located” in the North Atlantic somewhere west of Northern Africa.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.