Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on Dava Sobel/Longitude. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page analysis of Sobel's book that gives a wider historical perspective on the significance of this fascinating story of the invention of the chronometer. First, the writer relates the essence of Sobel's account of how an uneducated woodworker, John Harrison, solved the trickiest scientific problem of his age. Then, the writer relates this both to the Enlightenment and also to the market demands of that time. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_90lngtud.rtf
Buy This Term Paper »
Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
day with elegant skill and ingenuity; however, because he didnt have the right credentials and because his answer did not follow the "political correct" agenda, he met with one obstacle
after another in getting his invention recognized. It was the age of the Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, the philosophers and scientists of that time saw the universe and nature
as running according to logical rules that the mind of man was capable of eventually discerning. Reason, supposedly, reigned supreme. However, the foremost scientific mind of that age, Sir Isaac
Newton, was one of Harrisons opponents because his solution didnt fit Newtons preconceived notions of what the answer should be. Harrisons story is compellingly related in Dava Sobels book
Longitude. Sobel begins by making sure that her readers understand the principles behind the concepts of latitude and longitude. She explains, "The latitude lines, the parallels, really do stay parallel
to each other as they girdle the globe" (2). This series of concentric circles get progressively smaller and smaller as one gets further away from the equator. On the other
hand, the "meridians of longitude go the other way: they loop from the North Pole to the South and back again in great circle of the same size, so they
all converge at the ends of the earth" (2). Another pertinent difference that Sobel points out is that the zero-degree parallel of
latitude is fixed by nature and is the equator. The zero-degree meridian of longitude is an arbitrary designation that could be wherever scientists should happen to choose to place it.
For more then 200 years, the zero-degree of longitude has been Greenwich, England. Sobel writes, "This difference makes finding latitude childs play, and turns the determination of longitude, especially
...