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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How many times was Harrison married?
(a) Once.
(b) Three times.
(c) Never.
(d) Twice.

2. Who was in command of the ships that ran into the Scilly Islands near England?
(a) Samuel Pepys.
(b) John Harrison.
(c) Admiral Sir Clowdisley Shovell.
(d) Commodore George Anson.

3. When measuring longitude, each hour of time difference between the ship and starting point marks a progress of how many degrees of longitude?
(a) 25.
(b) 5.
(c) 15.
(d) 30.

4. In order for Ditton's and Whiston's plan to determine longitude to work, what would have to be done?
(a) A fleet of ships would need to be anchored at 600-mile intervals in the ocean.
(b) Accurate clocks would need to be on all ships.
(c) Ship captains would need to go to "Longitude School."
(d) New discoveries in compasses would need to be made.

5. Where was the destination the Centurion was sailing for?
(a) Scilly Islands.
(b) Cape Noir.
(c) Juan Fernandez Island.
(d) Tierra del Feugo.

6. What did King Louis build in Paris?
(a) An astronomical obersvatory.
(b) A telescope.
(c) Notre Dame.
(d) The Eifel Tower.

7. Complete this analogy from Chapter 4:Time in a Bottle: Time is to clock as mind is to ____________.
(a) Heaven.
(b) Head.
(c) Brain.
(d) Stars.

8. At the end of Chapter 6: The Prize, how had Newton changed his thinking about the longitude problem?
(a) He began to think a clock might solve the longitude problem.
(b) He was so frustrated he gave up the quest to solve longitude.
(c) He began to believe that there was no hope for solving the longitude problem.
(d) He wrote about the benefits to an astronomical solution.

9. What could the powder of sympathy reportedly do?
(a) Heal at a distance.
(b) Cure scurvy.
(c) Make one immortal.
(d) Point north when mixed with water.

10. Besides clocks, what was Hooke known for?
(a) A cartologist, a botanist, and an astrologist.
(b) An astronomer, a geologist, and a realist.
(c) A biologist, a surveyor, and a physicist.
(d) A capitalist, a dramatist, and an environmentalist.

11. What was the punishment for mutiny on the Association?
(a) Thrown overboard.
(b) Decapitation.
(c) Water boarding.
(d) Hanging.

12. Who developed the "lunar distance method" to longitude?
(a) John Flamsteed.
(b) Admiral Shovell.
(c) Johannes Werner.
(d) Ole Roemer.

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

14. What did King Louis XIV of France complain about with more accurate measures of longitude?
(a) That maps based on stars were inaccurate.
(b) That he was losing more territory to his astronomers than his enemies.
(c) That sea travel became more treacherous.
(d) That the economic costs of not knowing longitude were bankrupting his country.

15. What is the main difference in measuring longitude and latitude?
(a) Latitude is measured by time.
(b) Longitude is measured by the sun.
(c) Longitude is measured by time.
(d) Latitude is measured in degrees and longitude is not.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was Flamsteed's reaction to his maps being seized?

2. What does the term "dead reckoning" refer to?

3. Why was it remarkable for Harrison to build his first pendulum clock?

4. In the Whiston-Ditton proposal, what did they hope to be exempt from?

5. What was wrong with the watch built within a vacuum?

(see the answer keys)

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