23. Another of History’s More Beneficial Mistakes
As seen above, not all mistakes result in disaster. When Christopher Columbus sailed westward from Spain in 1492, he was convinced that he was less than 3000 miles away from Japan. A little more sailing beyond that, and he would reach the Indies, with their rich spice trade. In reality, Japan is about 12,000 miles away from Spain, not 3000. The reason Columbus thought it was much closer was that he erred in calculating the size of the globe. In one of history’s most momentous mistakes, Columbus concluded that the Earth is far smaller than it actually is.
Contrary to myth, neither Columbus nor his crew feared that they might fall off the edge of the world. The Ancient Greeks knew the earth was a globe two millennia earlier, and educated people and sailors in Columbus’ day had no illusions about the earth being flat. The issue for Columbus was not the shape of the earth, but the size of the ocean he planned on crossing. In addition to screwing up the calculations, he did not know – or had reason to suspect – that an unknown continental landmass lay between Spain and Asia.
