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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When did clock makers begin to design clocks to measure longitude?
(a) 17th century.
(b) 15th century.
(c) 16th century.
(d) 14th century.

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

3. What was Giovanni Domenico Cassini famous for?
(a) Sailing around the world.
(b) Publishing accurate maps.
(c) Discovering the moons of Jupiter.
(d) Inventing the pendulum clock.

4. What was Flamsteed's reaction to his maps being seized?
(a) He angrily turned them all over to Newton.
(b) He burned most of his maps.
(c) He made incorrect copies and gave those to the British government.
(d) He was so frustrated he gave up the quest to solve longitude.

5. Who helped Harrison build a clock that never lost more than a second per month?
(a) His colleague, Galileo.
(b) His cousin, Jim.
(c) His brother, Arthur.
(d) His brother-in-law, James.

6. In the earliest lines of latitude, what marked the zero-degree line?
(a) The equator.
(b) The prime meridian.
(c) The north pole.
(d) The tropic of cancer.

7. 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) New discoveries in compasses would need to be made.
(d) Ship captains would need to go to "Longitude School."

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

9. Who used the moons of Jupiter to solve the longitude problem?
(a) Newton.
(b) Galileo.
(c) Ptolomy.
(d) Commodore Anson.

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

11. Where did Newton believe the answer to the longitude problem lie?
(a) An astronomical solution.
(b) The wounded dog theory.
(c) A clock based solution.
(d) A sound and light solution.

12. Early clocks weren't up to measuring longitude at sea for two reasons. They were not accurate and changed because of what while at sea?
(a) Rocking of the boat.
(b) Speed of the boat.
(c) Temperature.
(d) Wind.

13. 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 monetary prize for solving the problem of longitude.
(d) A uniform way to calculate longitude.

14. What did Huygens and Hooke fight over?
(a) A ship.
(b) A woman.
(c) A patent.
(d) A map.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. The difference between longitude and latitude is that latitude lines _____________ each other.

2. What could the powder of sympathy reportedly do?

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

4. When the Centurion set sail for the South Pacific, what did they not take with them?

5. When was the magnetic compass invented?

(see the answer keys)

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