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Re: Bowditch Finds Error
From: Dan Allen
Date: 1999 May 08, 6:26 AM
From: Dan Allen
Date: 1999 May 08, 6:26 AM
So Bowditch was wrong about Moore being wrong? -----Original Message----- From Gordon Talge [mailto:gtalge@PE.NET] Sent: Friday, May 07, 1999 11:02 PM To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM Subject: Bowditch Finds Error In the first part of the 1984 edition of Bowditch where it tells about the him and his family, it talks about an error found by Bowditch in the 13th edition of "The New Practical Navigator" by Moore, dated 1798. To quote, "The most significant error was listing the year 1800 as a leap year in the table of the sun's declination. The consequence was that Moore gave the declination for March 1, 1800, as 7degs 11mins. Since the actual value was 7degs 33mins, the calculation of a meridian altitude would be in error by 22 mins of latitude." Interestingly enough, I have a copy of the Moore's book dated Jan. 30, 1798, unfortunately the title pages are missing from the book, along with his picture, but the preface states that the book has been through 12 previous editions. I checked the "error" and found that 1800 is not listed as a leap year and it gives the correct declination for March 1, 1800 as 7degs 33mins South. -- Gordon ,,, (. .) +-----------------------ooO-(_)-Ooo----------------------+ | Gordon Talge WB6YKK e-mail: gtalge@pe.net | | Department of Mathematics QTH: Loma Linda, CA | | Notre Dame High School Lat. N 34� 03.1' | | Riverside, CA 92506 Long. W 117� 15.2' | | http://www.pe.net/ND | +--------------------------------------------------------+