Longitude

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I take GPS for granted. I don’t use it that much personally, because I don’t tend to go anywhere, but I’m sure all this technology I love to use makes use of GPS. Thanks to GPS, we can forget that calculating longitude without the help of a network of satellites is difficult and requires great mathematical and engineering expertise. GPS might not be great at giving directions, but that doesn’t mean you’re lost.

You might think that Harrison's incredible devices would be unanimously welcomed. Alas, no. He was forever battling vested interests until eventually, and after decades, King George III intervened. Since the days of Ptolemy, legendary scientific and exploratory minds like Amarigo Vespucci, Sir Issac Newton and Galileo Galilei did a lot of research into this matter but it took sixteen more centuries for mankind to finally invent a reliable solution for this problem. Arthritis: What Works; Revolutionary Healing Approaches From An Unprecedented Nationwide Survey Of People With Arthritis. St. Martin's Press. 1992. Full Book Name: Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time American Library Association Non-fiction Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners, 1999 [10]

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Era tan importante para los países encontrar una solución al problema de la longitud, que les hacía perder barcos, mercancías, hombres y dinero, que decidieron poner una recompensa a aquél que diese una solución lo más exacta posible. El gobierno inglés llegó a ofrecer 20.000 libras, el equivalente a varios millones en la actualidad, estableciéndose así el Decreto de la Longitud de 1714. From January through March 2006, Ms. Sobel served as the Robert Vare Non-fiction Writer in Residence at the University of Chicago, where she taught a seminar in science writing while pursuing research for her stage play about sixteenth-century astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, called "And the Sun Stood Still." Her play was commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club through the Alfred P. Sloan Initiative, and was also supported by a Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. me, and the which had like to have occasioned me to become rough too; but however we got the ice broke . . . and indeed he became as at last vastly surprised at the thoughts or methods I had taken.'' Re-reading this now, many of the details and events in the story remain as compelling as they were ten years ago. Longitude is a tremendous tale of battling scientists and the perseverance of hard work, brilliance, and humility through political intrigue and greed.

A 1964 graduate of the Bronx High School of Science, Ms. Sobel attended Antioch College and the City College of New York before receiving her bachelor of arts degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1969. She holds honorary doctor of letters degrees from the University of Bath, in England, and Middlebury College, Vermont, both awarded in 2002. In December 2015, she is to receive an honorary doctor of science degree from the University of Bern, Switzerland. Britain was not alone in the desire to solve the problem. France's King Louis XIV founded the Académie Royale des Sciences in 1666. It was charged with, among a range of scientific activities, the improvement of maps and sailing charts and advancement of the science of navigation. From 1715, the Académie offered one of the two Prix Rouillés specifically for navigation. [4] Spain's Philip II offered a prize for the discovery of a solution to the problem of the longitude in 1567; Philip III increased the prize in 1598. Holland added to the effort with a prize offered in 1636. [5] Navigators and scientists in most European countries were aware of the problem and were involved in finding the solution. Due to the international effort in solving the problem and the scale of the enterprise, it represents one of the largest scientific endeavours in history. Sobel made her first foray into teaching at the University of Chicago as the Vare Writer-in-Residence in the winter of 2006. She taught a one-quarter seminar on writing about science. As Ms. Sobel puts it, ''He wrote with the scrivener's equivalent of marbles in his mouth.'' Describing his first encounter with a potential patron of his work, he wrote, ''Mr. Graham began as I thought very roughly withThe Discovery of the Longitude is of such Consequence to Great Britain for the safety of the Navy and Merchant Ships as well as for the improvement of Trade that for want thereof many Ships have been retarded in their voyages, and many lost..." and announced the Longitude Prize "for such person or persons as shall discover the Longitude." Book Genre: Biography, Geography, Historical, History, History Of Science, Nonfiction, Popular Science, Science, Technology, Travel This link is for Harrison's prize-winning H4, finished in 1759. This elegant chronometer with its pretty detailing had been miniaturized down to a diameter of 5 inches. Despite it's brevity, Longitude is an incredibly engaging and educational book. Sobel writes in a way that makes the science and math accessible to the general reader. of the world for the better part of human history.'' In fact, so frustrating was this problem that it came to be thought of as synonymous with impossibility.