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

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

Longitude is the story of English clockmaker John Harrison and how he figured out how to track longitude, or the east-west position of ships. The problem of longitude was long regarded as unsolvable. At sea, there were no landmarks by which one's east-west position could be tracked. Since ships were in motion, the position of the sun would also not suffice. Calculations by moon were impracticable and could only be used...

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