This is all clear to me.
Then if you measured the ground you had gone over, it would be equal to one-ninetieth part of the space between the pole and the equator, or about seventy miles. Can you tell how many miles it would be from the pole to the equator?
That would be seventy times ninety—which is 6300.
But that is only one-quarter of the way round—is it not?
Yes; the whole distance round would be four times 6300, or about 25,000 miles.
Well done—we have measured the circumference of the world.”
THE EARTH NOT QUITE ROUND.
“Father,” exclaimed James one day, “the captain has been giving me a riddle which I cannot guess. He asks where a pound of shot is not a pound. Is he joking with me?
Not at all, lad. A bag of shot weighing a pound in London, or even in Melbourne, will not weigh a pound on the equator.