If.
By Chysom Scott
@CJscott (4187)
Portage La Prairie, Manitoba
December 23, 2009 2:53am CST
If Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world now, which was the tallest mountain in the world before Mount Everest was discovered?
Someone asked today on MyLot, who discovered the Atom, and it got me to thinking...What exactly do we mean by discovered something. Is it true the Christopher Columbus "discovered" America, even though there was already people living there? So what constitutes a discovery to you?
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4 responses
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
23 Dec 09
A discovery literally means 'uncovering information or an object which was already there'. There is no doubt that Mount Everest was the highest mountain even before measurements actually proved that it was. Likewise, America was there long before Columbus 'discovered' it. It wasn't called America then (and it wasn't Columbus who named it).
Sometimes a discovery can also lead to an invention or a new use for something. Until Thorium was discovered to be radioactive, its only use was in treating gas mantles to make them glow brightly. Now it is known to be a relatively 'clean' source of atomic power.
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@Priyanka_manh (4)
• India
23 Dec 09
wel discovery is finding new thing about something which people don know.................
it needs efforts and intellligence
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@cyrus123 (6363)
• United States
25 Dec 09
How are you doing, CJscott? It's been a while since I've seen you on here. Yes, Christopher Columbus really did discover america, even though people were already here when he discovered it. He was searching for a route to India. That's why he called the first americans Indians. It is believed that the Indians got here by crossing the Bering Strait. That's just a theory, though. Kathy.
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@CJscott (4187)
• Portage La Prairie, Manitoba
25 Dec 09
That is one theory, another theory is that God had sent a Lehi's family over 600 years before the birth of Christ to save them from persecution of Jerusalem, but that would all depend on your "religious" views.
If people were already here, would they not have "discovered" this continent first? Before Columbus?? One answer to my discussions was "discovery is literally the uncovering of something that already exists", it was a very good answer.
Thank you for your interest in this discussion Kathy.
Have a Merry Christmas.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
27 Dec 09
I think that there are certain things that can be classified as discoveries and there are other things that are not classified in the correct way by calling them a discovery. I don't think that Christopher Columbus discovered America because there were already people here, but I do believe that Watson and Crick did discover DNA because it was something that prior to their discovery had never been highlighted to humans. What I am trying to say is that if there have ever been humans that have experienced what is being touted as a new discovery, then I don't think that it is a discovery at all.
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