Arthur Carlson wrote:
What I still don't understand is this: Even without an exact measurement of
the longitude, how could Cabrillo still think it was only a hop, skip, and a
jump from Mexico to Asia 20 years after Magellan had taken 4 months to cross
the Pacific? Magellan was sailing for
Patrick Powers wrote:
Use of the moon's motion came later because the moon's motion is so
complex - indeed the main competition to Harrison's clocks in the 1700s
came from the lunar tables that had by then been calculated.
Complementing Patrick Powers' comments:
It took Harrison 40
A quick answer to Arthur Carlson question,
Ranger George seemed to think that the expectations that the Earth was
smaller greatly inhibited the discovery of the actual size. The ancient
Greeks had believed in a rather small value, and who could question their
authority? It was also an important
