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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where did Harrison go to present his case to the Board of Longitude?
(a) Oxford.
(b) Paris.
(c) Edinburgh.
(d) London.

2. Where does the quote at the beginning of Chapter 3: Adrift in a Clockwork Universe have the author dreaming he is locked in?
(a) In a ship.
(b) In a hidden basement.
(c) On the moon.
(d) In his father's watch.

3. How accurate was the solution to longitude to be?
(a) Exact, no room for error.
(b) Less than ten degrees.
(c) At least five degrees.
(d) Within half a degree.

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

5. What was the name of the Portugese ship described in Chapter 2: The Sea Before Time that ran into a Spanish fleet?
(a) Madre de Deus.
(b) Centurion.
(c) Romney.
(d) Eagle.

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

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

8. When the Centurion set sail for the South Pacific, what did they not take with them?
(a) Harrison's clock.
(b) A compass.
(c) Smith's map.
(d) Medication to ward off scurvy.

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

10. In the Whiston-Ditton proposal, what did they hope to be exempt from?
(a) Espionage.
(b) War.
(c) Acts of piracy.
(d) Taxes.

11. In AD 150, who plotted lines of longitude and latitude?
(a) Galileo.
(b) Ptolemy.
(c) Newton.
(d) Moses.

12. Who built a watch within a vacuum that could tell stable time?
(a) Flamsteed.
(b) Thacket.
(c) Galileo.
(d) Newton.

13. What unusual occurrence helped in early navigation at sea?
(a) Solar and lunar eclipses.
(b) Comets.
(c) Asteroids.
(d) Storms.

14. What did Harrison build that still function today?
(a) Clocks.
(b) Microscopes.
(c) Telescopes.
(d) Telephones.

15. Who explained the moons of Jupiter with the velocity of light?
(a) Ole Roemer.
(b) Cassini.
(c) Galileo.
(d) Tycho Brahe.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who completed the first working pendulum clock?

2. How old was Harrison when he built his first pendulum clock?

3. The Parliamentary committee assembled to respond to the problem of longitude relied on which two experts?

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

5. When measuring longitude, each hour of time difference between the ship and starting point marks a progress of how many degrees of longitude?

(see the answer keys)

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