Jun 4, 2015 02:32 PM
https://plus.maths.org/content/longitude-problem
EXCERPT: In Latitude by the stars we saw how a little geometry helps adventurous seafarers to work out their latitude. People have been using the stars to do this for millennia. But longitude is a different story. It wasn't until the eighteenth century that people found a way to reliably measure longitude, and the fact that they couldn't do so earlier has lost countless lives at sea. The solution to the problem was eventually delivered by a clock....
EXCERPT: In Latitude by the stars we saw how a little geometry helps adventurous seafarers to work out their latitude. People have been using the stars to do this for millennia. But longitude is a different story. It wasn't until the eighteenth century that people found a way to reliably measure longitude, and the fact that they couldn't do so earlier has lost countless lives at sea. The solution to the problem was eventually delivered by a clock....