> From: John Dammeyer [mailto:jo...@autoartisans.com]
> I was just reading a few weeks ago in the book "Sapiens" that the early
> explorers set up an experiment where they would observe an
> astronomical event from both England and the South Pacific. Something about
> either time or position.
>
> I think it was Cook who was exploring at that point. I'll have to dig
> through to see exactly what it was.
>
> Still quite something to plan on observing something that will take you a
> year or more before you are even there to do the observing.
>
Chapter 15, The marriage of science and empire. James Cook was commissioned to
take astronomers and others to the pacific to be there in 1769 to measure the
duration of the transit that Venus makes across the sun. Apparently measured
from different places on earth results in simple trigonometry to determine the
distance of the earth from the sun.
Who knew.
John
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