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+--- Thread: The longitude problem (/thread-941.html)
The longitude problem - C C - Jun 4, 2015
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....
RE: The longitude problem - elte - Jun 4, 2015
Reminds me of the PBS show Nova story about the "search for longitude." I recall how sea farers dealt with the problem of how to determine longitude with a special clock kept inside a special isolating enclosure.