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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 6: The Prize.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How many men of the original 500 perished on Centurion's voyage to the South Pacific?
(a) Half.
(b) All but two.
(c) One quarter.
(d) 500.

2. What was wrong with the watch built within a vacuum?
(a) It was too large to take to sea.
(b) It lost accuracy due to temperature.
(c) The pendulum wasn't able to swing freely because of the vacuum.
(d) It was too expensive for the common sailor.

3. What disease afflicted many sailors at sea for long periods of time?
(a) Hepatitis.
(b) Malaria.
(c) Scurvy.
(d) Typhoid fever.

4. What did the Longitude Act of 1714 establish?
(a) The lunar method as the government's way to calculate longitude.
(b) A monetary prize for solving the problem of longitude.
(c) A uniform way to calculate longitude.
(d) Taxes on the use of maps with longitude.

5. How many sailors died near the Scilly Islands?
(a) 2,000.
(b) 4,000.
(c) 500.
(d) 1,000.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did King Louis XIV of France complain about with more accurate measures of longitude?

2. In order for Ditton's and Whiston's plan to determine longitude to work, what would have to be done?

3. What was one disadvantage to using the magnetic variation method to determine longitude?

4. Which of the following was NOT an early player in the quest for the longitude prize?

5. What was one benefit of the Whiston-Ditton proposal?

(see the answer key)

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