Is there an explanation for these phenomenons e.g. light?

Question

In ancient times, people believed that the Earth was flat and supported by pillars. Ships would fall off when they travel beyond the edge of the Earth!

The Earth being spherical in shape is now widely accepted. What made people think that the earth was flat in the first place? Why do you think the earth is round now?

This is but one of the many scientific discoveries that began as a widely accepted fact before being disproved. It must have been quite a mental leap for the people back then to make – but most scientific theories started out that way.

Take or example, light, why does it bend and all that?? Is there an explanation for this phenomenon?

Answer 1

There is a general principle of science, known as 'Occam's Razor', that states that the simplest answer is usually the best.  To the ancients, a flat earth was the simplest answer.  Why would they have coplicated things?  Later; when our knowledge increased, the 'simplest' answer to many things was that the earth is round.

Remember Copernicus; and how he was originally criticised for saying that the sun was at the centre of the solar system?  It turned out that, on ce the physics of motion became known, that this WAS the simplest answer.

Many people believe that science is about making knowledge more complicated; but in fact it is the reverse. The theories may become more DETAILED; but less complicated.At the moment, scientists are trying to combine two great theories; relativity and quantum mechanics, in order to simplify scientific theories.