The history of longitude is a record of the effort, by navigators and scientists over several centuries, to discover a means of determining longitude.
The measurement of longitude is important to both cartography and navigation. Historically, the most important practical application of these was to provide safe ocean navigation. Knowledge of both latitude and longitude was required. Finding a method of determining longitude took centuries and involved some of the greatest scientific minds.
Read more about History Of Longitude: Ancient History, Problem of Longitude, Time Equals Longitude, Proposed Methods of Determining Time, Lunars or Chronometers?, Modern Solutions, Further Refinements For Longitude On Land, Notable Scientific Contributions
Famous quotes containing the words history of and/or history:
“If usually the “present age” is no very long time, still, at our pleasure, or in the service of some such unity of meaning as the history of civilization, or the study of geology, may suggest, we may conceive the present as extending over many centuries, or over a hundred thousand years.”
—Josiah Royce (1855–1916)
“It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.”
—Henry James (1843–1916)