应用测量方法以定地球之形状及大小我国天文学开创最早;星象学及历法在唐虞之世已粗具规模。

Figure of the earth as a geometrical problem. In anoient times,people thought that the surface of the earth is essentially flat. This notion hadbeen kept in the minds of the primitive peoples until the beginning of the sixthcentury before Ohrist. The first clear and unequivocal statement of the sphericity of the earth was due to the Greek philosopher Pythogoras (died 582 B. C.).