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Sea Kayak Trips Bulletin Board
Re: Leonid
Posted By: lee In Response To: Re: Leonid (Pete W.P.)
Date: Wednesday, 24 November 1999, at 11:39 p.m.
Pete, there's a neat book , the title is something like "the Finding of Longitude" the underdog clock maker carrying on his fathers legacy for state of the art mechanisms in competition with a mathemetician/ astronomer in their pursuit of the prize for a method to determine longitude-this was a problem for all those globe trotting powers in the 16th century- "are we there yet?" "captain, I'm hungry"
The astronomer/mathematician had the favor of the board judging the different methods. The motion of Jupiters visible moons could be a kind of timekeeper with elaborate tables and calculations. As a method it was closer to god's designs, or at least scientists interpretation of a grand design waiting only for human discovery. The clock maker actually had the more precise method but he was out of favor, not of the noble,educated class. A time keeping clock made by human hands that could be more accurate than the heavens? heavens!
Anyway, those bright tiny moons lined up on jupiter, looked like something van morrison could sing with.
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