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Noel:

> Thinking about it, all I could hope to offer from memory would depend on
> talking to Merlin or some local wise person about scientific matters.

Wise enough persons might not be available at a given place and given time.
And depending of what you tell them, there will be also a problem to
convince them that you are telling the truth. To qualify for a miracle,
the thing must be really impressive to many people...

> could "invent" a sextant,

I doubt it. You would need materials/technology which did not exist.
Besides sextant is useless without an almanac:-)
But even with almanac, they would hardly appreciate that.
What is it for, without maps?

> tell them where America was,

You will have to prove this. And to prove this, you will need them
to finance you. After all, Columbus spent most of his life, begging
for support of various kings to prove his idea:-)

> advise boiling
> water before drinking it,

To prove that you are right, you will need a lot of time. And it is not
a sure thing. What will be the result of a trial? Only statistics...

> make a wooden bicycle,

Can you really make a wooden bicycle?? What about the chain?
What about bearings?

> or generally describe the
> motions of the heavens.

They were probably not much interested in this.
Otherwise they would read and
copy Ptolemy... which they did not.
Ptolemy came back to Europe only in XV century if I do not mistake,
translated from the Arabic.

> Being realistic, most of that would probably get
> me burned at the stake anyway.

Possibly. Or (more likely) they will just pay no attention:-(

Alex.

P.S. When I was asked, I made several similar proposals, and finally
gave up. The person who asked proposed a very reasonable solution...
Since then I asked many friends and no one offered anything better.

The best I could propose myself was making a sailboat which can sail
at sharp angles to the wind... But really I probably cannot build a
decent boat, without instruments, and even with them:-(
Besides nobody knows when they invented this, there are some indications
that the Latin rig was available in the late Roman empire. And surely
with Latin rig you can sail up wind.

   

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