Bedford Level Experiment

The Bedford Level Experiment is a series of observations carried out along a six-mile length of the Old Bedford River on the Bedford Level, Norfolk, England, during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was an attempt to determine the shape of the Earth. Early results seemed to prove the Earth to be flat, but most later attempts to reproduce the observations firmly supported the established view that the Earth is a sphere.

Read more about Bedford Level Experiment:  Method, History, Refraction, Other Experiments

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