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Longitude calculations can be simplified using a clock is set to the local time of a starting point whose longitude is known, transporting it to a new location, and using it for astronomical observations. The longitude of the new location can be determined by comparing the difference of local mean time and the time of the transported clock.
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time is a 1995 best-selling book by Dava Sobel about John Harrison, an 18th-century clockmaker who created the first clock (chronometer) sufficiently accurate to be used to determine longitude at sea—an important development in navigation.
The problem he solved had been considered so important following the Scilly naval disaster of 1707 that the British Parliament was offering financial rewards of up to £20,000 (equivalent to £3.97 million in 2024) under the 1714 Longitude Act, [1] though Harrison never received the full reward due to political rivalries. He presented his first ...
Dava Sobel (born June 15, 1947) is an American writer of popular expositions of scientific topics. Her books include Longitude, about English clockmaker John Harrison; Galileo's Daughter, about Galileo's daughter Maria Celeste; and The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars about the Harvard Computers.
The Greek Marinus of Tyre (CE 70–130) was the first to assign a latitude and longitude to every place on his maps. From the late 9th century CE, the Arabian Kamal was used in equatorial regions, to measure the height of Polaris above the horizon.
Squire was born in York and baptised in 1686 and died in London in 1743. [1] Her parents, Priscilla and Robert Squire, were wealthy and influential. [2] Squire moved to London in 1720 where, although involved in litigation and imprisoned for debt for three years, she used her influential connections to pursue her religiously-based longitude project and the circulation of her book, A Proposal ...
The History of Cartography series Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987; Hsu, Mei-ling. "The Qin Maps: A Clue to Later Chinese Cartographic Development," Imago Mundi (Volume 45, 1993): 90–100. Livingstone, D. (1993). The Geographical Tradition: Episodes in the history of a contested enterprise. Wiley-Blackwell. Martin, Geoffrey J.
Longitude is given as an angular measurement with 0° at the Prime Meridian, ranging from −180° westward to +180° eastward. The Greek letter λ (lambda) [38] [39] is used to denote the location of a place on Earth east or west of the Prime Meridian. Each degree of longitude is sub-divided into 60 minutes, each of which is divided into 60 ...