Question

Which of them is true?

A) Scientific discoveries began thousands of years ago, probably as early as human life began.
B) Science did not exist until after the Middle Ages.
C) The first scientific discovery was the discovery that the Earth is round.
D) None of the above.

Answer 1

The correct answer is D) None of the above. Scientific discoveries began thousands of years ago, philosophers developed the foundations of the scientific method, and the first scientific discovery was not the discovery of a round Earth.

Step-by-step explanation:

The correct answer is D) None of the above.

While it is true that scientific discoveries began thousands of years ago, probably as early as human life began, option A is not entirely accurate. Science did exist in some form even before the Middle Ages. Philosophers developed formal rules of deductive and inferential logic long before the word scientist was coined. The scientific method, as we know it today, grew from those beginnings along with increasing empirical observation and experimentation.

Furthermore, the first scientific discovery was not the discovery that the Earth is round. Educated people in the eastern Mediterranean region knew that the Earth was round at least 2000 years before Columbus. The idea of a spherical Earth can be traced back to the time of the philosopher Pythagoras, who lived 2500 years ago.