The Flat Earth (?)

[Montgomery26]

Leonhard Euler computed that the earth's radius at the poles must be less than the radius at the equator. So it's flattened (though not of course flat :)). There was a lot of doubt about the truth of this, but measurements in Finland and Ecuador proved he was right.

Read about this, and about his discovery that e raised to the power i pi equals -1 in the free humorous math newsletter, at http://www.gnarlymath.com/news/gnews1_1.html