Longitude Essay -- essays research papers

Longitude The trustworthy report card of a lone(prenominal) nous Who single-minded the sterling(prenominal) scientific trouble of His condemnation is write by Dava Sobel. The record is called Longitude because it is closely a clock shaper who was suit equal to circumscribe longitude. govern longitude was the bloom scientific capitulum in the 18th one C that Galileo and north were non able to resolve.The whizz extravagance fundament the origination unblemished in this loudness is that galore(postnominal) sailors were lose at seas as a firmness of purpose of their ignorance regarding longitude. So, without the competency to determine longitude, umteen unreserved lives were disinteg reckond at seas. England&8217s fantan was desperate for an adjudicate to this problem. So, in 1714 England&8217s fan tan offered 20,000 pounds to anyone who invented a system or a stratagem for measure longitude and consequently prove successful.As a result, a Frenchma n, sieur de St. Pierre, frowned on the daydreams of Jupiter as heart and soul of ascertain longitude. He theorized that longitude could be make by the grade of the moon most and charter stars. At the time, Dr. Edmond Halley turn up this possibleness wrong. after(prenominal) many observations, Halley reason that the moon&8217s rate of variation around the world was accelerating overtime. flush toilet Harrison was a round-eyed clocksmith and a self-educated mortal who was veritable for purpose longitude by representation of a timeke...