Time Equals Longitude
Since the Earth rotates at a steady rate of 360° per day, or 15° per hour (in mean solar time), there is a direct relationship between time and longitude. If the navigator knew the time at a fixed reference point when some event occurred at the ship's location, the difference between the reference time and the apparent local time would give the ship's position relative to the fixed location. Finding apparent local time is relatively easy. The problem, ultimately, was how to determine the time at a distant reference point while on a ship.
Read more about this topic: History Of Longitude
Famous quotes containing the words time and/or equals:
“At about that time I was once sitting at my place and whispering—it was naughty, I know—with my neighbor. Then you, Herr Professor Rudner, got up from your desk, came calmly down the aisle to me: “Did you speak?” and slapped me smack in the face. And I—the fury is inside me to this day—I didn’t hit back. Such were the methods of objectivity.”
—Alfred Döblin (1878–1957)
“If an angel were ever to tell us anything of his philosophy I believe many propositions would sound like 2 times 2 equals 13.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)