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Article: Clocking longitude.
- Article from:
- Calliope
- Article date:
- November 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Carus Publishing Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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SCRAPE! CRACK!--Two noises sailor never wants to hear. They ore he sounds of a ship hitting land unexpectedly. Before 1761, they often were heard by those who had lost their way because they did not know at what longitude their vessel was.
For centuries, sailors had used instruments that enabled them to calculate their latitude--how far north or south they were, which can be determined by measuring the height of the sun or of a star. They did so by measuring their distance from the equator. Much more difficult to calculate was longitude--a ship's position when traveling east or west. Sailors did have a variety of ways to find longitude at sea, including the use ...