Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

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Announcing the 2012 PEN Literary Award Recipients". PEN American Center. October 15, 2012 . Retrieved February 6, 2013. A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos. Bloomsbury Publishing. October 4, 2011. ISBN 978-0-8027-7893-2. OCLC 819387028 [9]

Longitude Summary | Dava Sobel Longitude Summary | Dava Sobel

John Harrison's marine timekeepers are on display at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London and are well worth seeing... Longitude is the first renowned work by the acclaimed American science writer Dava Sobel. Besides Longitude, Sobel has also published bestselling popular science works such as Galileo's Daughter and The Planets, which have won her awards one after another. Before Longitude was published, it was rejected by more than 10 publishing houses, but Sobel didn’t give up and insisted on telling this story to the world. Sobel was born in The Bronx, New York City. She graduated from the Bronx High School of Science and Binghamton University. She wrote Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time in 1995. The story was made into a television movie, of the same name by Charles Sturridge and Granada Film in 1999, and was shown in the United States by A&E.

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In recognition for Longitude, Sobel was named as a fellow of the American Geographical Society. [8] Film adaptations [ edit ] Era tan importante para los países encontrar una solución al problema de la longitud, que les hacía perder barcos, mercancías, hombres y dinero, que decidieron poner una recompensa a aquél que diese una solución lo más exacta posible. El gobierno inglés llegó a ofrecer 20.000 libras, el equivalente a varios millones en la actualidad, estableciéndose así el Decreto de la Longitud de 1714. Hay que pensar en la longitud como un elemento asociado al tiempo. Si tenemos en cuenta que circunvalar la Tierra supone 360º, que se dividen en 24 meridianos de longitud, obtenemos una separación entre ellos de 15º, calculándose cada grado en minutos. Por lo tanto es fundamental saber en todo momento el tiempo real tanto en el barco como en el lugar desde el que se ha partido o el de destino. Parece simple, con un simple reloj arreglado. Pero no es tan fácil como parece, porque la temperatura y la presión atmosférica afectan mucho la maquinaria de los relojes, adelantándolos o retrasándolos o simplemente parándolos. El capitán pensaba que estaba a X minutos de su destino y se encontraba con que el tiempo pasaba y no arribaban a lugar alguno. Y aquí entraban en juego los partidarios de los relojes y los que preferían guiarse por el mapa estelar, mirando el cielo. She writes, ''Coming face with these machines at last -- after having read countless accounts of their construction and trial, after having seen every detail of their insides and outsides in still and moving pictures -- reduced me to tears.''

Longitude (book) - Wikipedia

La Historia está llena de pequeños descubrimientos capaces de cambiar el mundo. Aunque debería decir pequeños vistos desde nuestros días. Este es el caso de la longitud, es decir, esas líneas imaginarias que trazan nuestro planeta desde los polos, dividiéndolo en veinticuatro partes iguales. La longitud era fundamental en tierra firme para trazar mapas lo más exactos posibles, pero sobre todo era esencial para la navegación. El mundo era un gran desconocido cuyos horizontes estaban todavía por descubrir y el único medio para hacerlo era en barco, surcando esos océanos y mares ignotos donde cualquier error de cálculo podía suponer perderse en su inmensidad y morir con seguridad, ya sea por la escasez de agua potable y alimentos como por escorbuto. Un barco podía pensar que estaba arribando a su destino cuando quizás era todo lo contrario, o podía colisionar con elementos desconocidos provocando su hundimiento. Knowing longitude [ edit ] A blue plaque marks the location at Red Lion Square (the original house was demolished) where Harrison lived and died. This link is for Harrison's prize-winning H4, finished in 1759. This elegant chronometer with its pretty detailing had been miniaturized down to a diameter of 5 inches.The major theme of the book is the extraordinary and surprising sources of excellence. Harrison is an uneducated, idiosyncratic English countryman, yet he solved a problem that even Isaac Newton had not. It is also the story of the pettiness of the jealous, particularly embodied in the bitter Nevil Maskelyne. Many are threatened by the greatness of others, particularly if that greatness threatens one's status. This leads to the standard historical phenomenon of hostility to persons of great creativity and inventiveness. King George III looking none too pleased about the shenanigans he has to deal with. Belated success Before Britannia could rule the waves, its captains needed to figure out where their ships were going and, just as importantly, how to return home. friendsofthesanfranciscopubliclibrary Edition 1. publ. in the United States of America. External-identifier American Library Association Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners, Science and Technology, 2004 [11]

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved t…

But though Harrison had patrons interested in seeing him succeed, Harrison also made unlikely enemies. Many of the scientific elite, some of which tasked with review and approval of submissions to the Longitude Act, saw Harrison, a simple carpenter with no formal training or schooling, as naive and unworthy of serious consideration, let alone the immense grand prize. They saw his mechanical solution to such a literally astronomical problem as idealistic at best. At worst, it was lumped together with the other nonsensical or impossible solutions submitted. Some of these other submissions included injuring dogs at regular intervals to illicit yelps.Fellows nominated in 2022". APS Fellows archive. American Physical Society . Retrieved October 19, 2022. Obviously, this operation required an outrageous number of vessels, crew and budget. This approach no doubt was met with strong criticism. Whether an individual came up with this approach out of sincerity or irony is unknown. People with some intelligence would realize that was merely a ridiculous joke, when considering whether or not the powder could be effective at all, let alone when the subject was out on waters thousands of miles away. She holds honorary doctor of letters degrees from the University of Bath and Middlebury College, Vermont, both awarded in 2002. [3]