Which of the following explains why navigators prior to a few hundred years ago found it much more difficult to determine longitude than latitude?
A)Determining longitude requires mathematical techniques that were not known at the time.
B)Determining longitude requires much more precise measurements of angles in the sky than does latitude.
C)Determining longitude requires accurate tables of the celestial coordinates of stars,while determining latitude does not.
D)Determining longitude requires an accurate clock,but latitude does not.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Prior to the invention of accurate clocks, determining longitude was much more difficult because it required the use of celestial navigation and a timing method to determine the difference between local time and time at a known location (such as the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England). Latitude, on the other hand, could be determined fairly accurately through observations of the position of the North Star or the angle of the sun at noon.

Which of the Following Explains Why Navigators Prior to a Few