68 pages 2 hours read

Dava Sobel

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2005

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Essay Topics

1.

Explain what longitude is and latitude are. Why has one historically been hard for mariners to find and the other easy?

2.

Why was England so concerned with finding a method for determining longitude? What role did the Royal Greenwich Observatory play in solving the problem?

3.

How did John Harrison’s clocks solve the longitude problem? Give an example of how this might work at sea.