Ocean State Libraries

The division of the Earth into hemispheres isn t the easiest concept to teach or grasp. It involves geography, spatial awareness, map-reading abilities, and more. This volume makes it easy for any reader to develop a solid comprehension of this critical social studies lesson! Vivid, full-color maps and photographs are integrated with accessible main text to aid young readers understanding of this sometimes-tough topic. This essential book is a useful...

Describes the need for sailors to be able to determine their position at sea and the efforts of John Harrison, an eighteenth century man who spent his life refining instruments to enable them to do this.

Even in such a tech-savvy culture as ours, understanding latitude and longitude coordinates has many uses. Coordinates can help hikers find their way when lost on a difficult trail and geocache enthusiasts locate their treasure. Even more importantly, they can help communicate location no matter what language is being spoken. Readers learn all about the development, use, and accuracy of the grid mapping system of latitude and longitude. Covering the...

This fully illustrated edition of the international best-seller Longitude recounts in words and images the epic quest to solve the greatest scientific problem of the eighteenth and three prior centuries: determining how a captain could pinpoint his ship's location at sea. All too often, voyages ended in disaster when crew and cargo were either lost at sea or destroyed upon the rocks of an unexpected landfall. Thousands of lives and the fortunes of...

Interweaves two stories: John Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, know today as the chronometer; and Naval officer Rupert Gould who, two hundred years later, stumbles across Harrison's long-neglected mechanical masterpieces.