Longitude

Longitude PDF Author: Dava Sobel
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0802779433
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
The dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of one man's forty-year obsession to find a solution to the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day--"the longitude problem." Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that "the longitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day-and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives and the increasing fortunes of nations hung on a resolution. One man, John Harrison, in complete opposition to the scientific community, dared to imagine a mechanical solution-a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land. Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world.

Longitude

Longitude PDF Author: Dava Sobel
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0802779433
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
The dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of one man's forty-year obsession to find a solution to the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day--"the longitude problem." Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that "the longitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day-and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives and the increasing fortunes of nations hung on a resolution. One man, John Harrison, in complete opposition to the scientific community, dared to imagine a mechanical solution-a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land. Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world.

Encyclopaedia Britannica

Encyclopaedia Britannica PDF Author: Hugh Chisholm
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Encyclopedias and dictionaries
Languages : en
Pages : 1090

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Book Description
This eleventh edition was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time and it is considered to be a landmark encyclopaedia for scholarship and literary style.

Latitude and Longitude

Latitude and Longitude PDF Author: Rebecca Aberg
Publisher: Children's Press(CT)
ISBN: 9780516227238
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The popular Rookie Books expand their horizons - to all corners of the globe! With this series all about geography, emergent readers will take off on adventures to cities, nations, waterways, and habitats around the world...and right in their own backyards.

Longitude and Latitude, with Attitude

Longitude and Latitude, with Attitude PDF Author: Rufus McGaugh
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781976268724
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Rufus McGaugh knew early on that he wanted to see the world-all of it. And, later on, he did just that.Longitude and Latitude, with Attitude chronicles Rufus's 49 years of travels around the globe to every country in the world. It relates his experiences, both harrowing and humorous, in entertaining and amusing (sometimes even instructive!) vignettes.Rufus, a Vietnam vet who was awarded the Purple Heart in 1970, became a Vietnam vet against the war, got a college degree, and taught social studies at Brownell Middle School in the affluent Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe for 39 years. During that time-and before and after-he spent his summers, vacations, and retirement fulfilling a life-long dream to travel to every corner of the Earth. He has visited countries near and far, well known and obscure (including the closed regimes of North Korea and Libya). He has met interesting people, seen fascinating sights, and observed unusual events.He has been hassled by the authorities in Russia (twice in one day). He was arrested-and later stalked by a leopard-in Zimbabwe. He met Miss America (well, Miss South Carolina) in Vietnam, outfoxed (or so he thought) a tailor in Hong Kong, and broke both arms bicycling in Cuba.Longitude and Latitude, with Attitude is the unpretentious, often comic, frequently informative chronicle of these and other adventures and misadventures he experienced on his journeys. Other wanderers like him-and armchair travelers everywhere-will be captivated by it. The lively writing is supplemented by more than 50 pictures that inveterate photographer Rufus has taken in the course of his trips.

Latitude, Longitude, and Direction

Latitude, Longitude, and Direction PDF Author: Julia J. Quinlan
Publisher: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc
ISBN: 1448861578
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 26

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Book Description
Explains the concepts of latitude and longitude as well as the purpose of the compass rose on a map.

Latitude

Latitude PDF Author: Nicholas Crane
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1643137964
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Latitude is a gloriously exciting tale of adventure and scientific discovery that has never been told before. Crane, the former president of the Royal Geographic Society, documents the remarkable expedition undertaken by a group of twelve European adventurer-scientists in the mid-eighteenth century. The team spent years in South America, scaling volcanoes and traversing jungles before they achieved their goal of establishing the exact shape of the Earth by measuring the length of 1 degree latitude at the equator. Their endeavors were not limited to this one achievement. Not only did their discovery open up the possibility for safe, accurate navigation across the seas, they also discovered rubber and quinine. With a narrative that reads like it was taken from the script of an adventure movie, Nicholas Crane brings to life a narrative that is a timely remind of how scientific discovery can change the world and our future. By knowing the shape of the earth we can create maps, survive the oceans, navigate the skies, and travel across the globe. Without latitude, maps and navigation wouldn’t be accurate, lives would have been lost, and exact locations of cities and rivers would never be known. After ten grueling years in search of a magic number, the survivors returned to Europe with their historical discovery and fueled the public’s interest in science. Twent-five years ago, Dava Sobel’s bestselling Longitude was a global publishing phenomenon, yet it told only one half of the story. With Latitude, this cornerstone piece of our shared history is now complete with this tale of a trip that changed the course of human civilization. Filled with raw excitement and danger, Latitude brings the challenges that faced these explorer-scientists to vivid life.

360 Degrees Longitude

360 Degrees Longitude PDF Author: John Higham
Publisher: Easton Studio Press, LLC
ISBN: 1935212990
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
Much more than a travel narrative 360 Degrees Longitude: One Family’s Journey Around the World is a glimpse at what it means to be a “global citizen”—a progressively changing view of the world as seen through the eyes of an American family of four. After more than a decade of planning, John Higham and his wife September bid their high-tech jobs and suburban lives good-bye, packed up their home and set out with two children, ages eight and eleven, to travel around the world. In the course of the next 52 weeks they crossed 24 time zones, visited 28 countries and experienced a lifetime of adventures. Making their way across the world, the Highams discovered more than just different foods and cultures; they also learned such diverse things as a Chilean mall isn’t the best place to get your ears pierced, and that elephants appreciate flowers just as much as the next person. But most importantly, they learned about each other, and just how much a family can weather if they do it together. 360 Degrees Longitude employs Google’s wildly popular Google Earth as a compliment to the narrative. Using your computer you can spin the digital globe to join the adventure cycling through Europe, feeling the cold stare of a pride of lions in Africa, and breaking down in the Andes. Packed with photos, video and text, the online Google Earth companion adds a dimension not possible with mere paper and ink. Fly over the terrain of the Inca Trail or drill down to see the majesty of the Swiss Alps—without leaving the comfort of your chair.

Air Navigation

Air Navigation PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Navigation (Aeronautics)
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description


Finding Longitude

Finding Longitude PDF Author: Richard Dunn
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780007525867
Category : Longitude
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Official publication of the National Maritime Museum's exhibition "Ships, Clocks and Stars: The Quest for Longitude". 300 years ago, amidst growing frustration from the naval community and pressure from the increasing importance of international trade, the British government passed the 1714 Longitude Act. It was an attempt to solve one of the most pressing problems of the age: how to determine a ship's longitude (east-west position) at sea. With life-changing rewards on offer, the challenge captured the imaginations and talents of astronomers, skilled craftsmen, politicians, seamen and satirists. This beautifully illustrated book is a detailed account of these stories, and how the longitude problem was solved. Highlights of the book include: * Foreword by the fifteenth Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees. * Specially commissioned photographs of the National Maritime Museum's collection. * A new description of the collaborations and conflicts in a tale of technical creativity, scientific innovation and hard commercialism. From the same publisher as Dava Sobel's Longitude, Finding Longitude tells a new story of one of the great achievements of the Georgian age, and how it changed our understanding of the world.

Geocomputation with R

Geocomputation with R PDF Author: Robin Lovelace
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1351396900
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
Geocomputation with R is for people who want to analyze, visualize and model geographic data with open source software. It is based on R, a statistical programming language that has powerful data processing, visualization, and geospatial capabilities. The book equips you with the knowledge and skills to tackle a wide range of issues manifested in geographic data, including those with scientific, societal, and environmental implications. This book will interest people from many backgrounds, especially Geographic Information Systems (GIS) users interested in applying their domain-specific knowledge in a powerful open source language for data science, and R users interested in extending their skills to handle spatial data. The book is divided into three parts: (I) Foundations, aimed at getting you up-to-speed with geographic data in R, (II) extensions, which covers advanced techniques, and (III) applications to real-world problems. The chapters cover progressively more advanced topics, with early chapters providing strong foundations on which the later chapters build. Part I describes the nature of spatial datasets in R and methods for manipulating them. It also covers geographic data import/export and transforming coordinate reference systems. Part II represents methods that build on these foundations. It covers advanced map making (including web mapping), "bridges" to GIS, sharing reproducible code, and how to do cross-validation in the presence of spatial autocorrelation. Part III applies the knowledge gained to tackle real-world problems, including representing and modeling transport systems, finding optimal locations for stores or services, and ecological modeling. Exercises at the end of each chapter give you the skills needed to tackle a range of geospatial problems. Solutions for each chapter and supplementary materials providing extended examples are available at https://geocompr.github.io/geocompkg/articles/.