Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

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The prizes were to be awarded to the first person to demonstrate a practical method for determining the longitude of a ship at sea. Each prize, in increasing amounts, was for solutions of increasing accuracy. These prizes, worth millions of dollars in today's currency, motivated many to search for a solution. Nearly 100 years later, Galileo Galilei discovered Jupiter. He carefully observed the moons of Jupiter, calculated their movement periods and sketched Astronomical Ephemeris. He also created a navigation helmet, the celatone. It resembles a gas mask made of copper and can be used to observe Jupiter’s moons to determine longitude. This method was generally accepted upon its introduction. However, unfortunately it was limited to being used on land, and still did not work on turbulent seas. 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 with Sobel states she is a chaser of solar eclipses and that "it's the closest thing to witnessing a miracle". As of August 2012 she had seen eight, and planned to see the November 2012 total solar eclipse in Australia. [7] Publications [ edit ] External video

LONGITUDE | Kirkus Reviews LONGITUDE | Kirkus Reviews

Obviously, this operation required an outrageous number of vessels, crew and budget. This approach no doubt was met with strong criticism. When sailors need to determine their position and navigate the sea, they refer to the latitude and longitude of the ship. Latitude is easy to measure, as its zero-degree position, which is the equator, is defined by natural laws. Experienced sailors are able to accurately determine their latitude based on the length of day, the height from the horizon of the sun or common stars, such as Polaris. The zero degree of longitude, which is the prime meridian of London, is artificially defined and there is no natural law to follow. In fact, longitude is determined by relative time. The Earth rotates once in 24 hours, exactly 360 degrees, so it makes 1/24 of the rotation per hour, or 15 degrees. Every one-hour difference in time is every 15-degree difference in longitude. Under such circumstances, countries were eager to discover new, secret paths, and that required an effective way to determine longitude.

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Muchos científicos de renombre hicieron frente al reto pero sólo uno lo consiguió, John Harrison. Esta es su historia, la de él y la de otros tantos que quisieron encontrar una solución al problema. Galileo, Newton, Huygens y un largo etcétera no fueron capaces que dar con la clave. Tuvo que llegar Harrison, un desconocido, un autodidacta aficionado a los relojes, carpintero de profesión para poner fin al problema. Y no lo tuvo nada fácil, porque además de intentar construir sus máquinas de precisión, tuvo que hacer frente a la oposición de los astrónomos, empeñados en que su método era el mejor y más adecuado. In eighteenth century Europe, although scientists had long wrestled with the problem, sailors had no method of determining their longitude. The economic losses and the loss of life was so staggering that finding a solution to the problem was elevated to the almost legendary level of finding the Holy Grail or the Fountain of Youth. In the Longitude Act of 1714, the British Parliament offered a prize of 20,000 pounds (equivalent to several million dollars today) to anyone who found a "practicable and useful" means of determining longitude.

Longitude by Dava Sobel | Waterstones

Eventually his son, William, appealed to King George III, who reportedly muttered under his breath, ''These people have been cruelly treated,'' and said aloud to William, ''By God, Harrison, I will see you righted.'' She writes, ''Coming face with these machines at last -- after having read countless accounts of their construction and trial, after having seen every detail of their insides and outsides in still and moving pictures -- reduced me to tears.'' Navigating purely by latitude was of course vulnerable if the sun was clouded over at noon, and caused problems as it prevented ships from taking the most direct route, a great circle, or a route with the most favourable winds and currents, extending voyages by days or even weeks. This increased the likelihood of short rations, [3] scurvy or starvation leading to poor health or even death for members of the crew and resultant risk to the ship. Dutton's Navigation and Piloting, 12th edition. G.D. Dunlap and H.H. Shufeldt, eds. Naval Institute Press 1972, ISBN 0-87021-163-3 Sobel was born in The Bronx, New York City. She graduated from the Bronx High School of Science and Binghamton University. She wrote Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time in 1995. The story was made into a television movie, of the same name by Charles Sturridge and Granada Film in 1999, and was shown in the United States by A&E.Her book Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love was a finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. [2] Dava Sobel in November 2007 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. In part two, we learned about the various approaches that people came up with to determine longitude. Some were absurd and ridiculous, and some shone with wisdom. While the wounded dog theory, beacon towers on the sea and magnetic compass positioning methods were all impractical, the lunar distance method on the other hand was quite refined and generally gave accurate results. However, it was way too complicated, and required not only mastery, but also lots of time and energy, which prohibited it from being widely used. Our protagonist, John Harrison, was born into modest means. He was a carpenter by trade. Where Harrison developed the skills necessary to eventually create his chronometers is murky. What we know is that he was 21 years old when Parliament announced the Longitude Act. He undertook the challenge and had the rest of his life ahead of him to devote to the problem, which he did.