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Re: Lord Kelvin's lunars game (and an old joke)
From: Dan Allen
Date: 2005 May 26, 21:32 -0600
From: Dan Allen
Date: 2005 May 26, 21:32 -0600
On May 26, 2005, at 8:41 PM, Frank Reed wrote: > In 1908, shortly after the death of the famous classical physicist > Lord > Kelvin (William Thomson), "The Observatory" published a note on a > little game > involving longitude by lunar distance observations which Kelvin > had proposed for > a math competition at Cambridge in 1874. The challenge he proposed > was: > " Describe the method of 'lunars' for finding longitude at sea, > explaining > the use of each of the observations to be made, and the character > of the > tabular data required. Why is this method rarely used in modern > navigation? > Show how a castaway in the N. hemisphere could, on any clear > night, with no > other instrumental appliances than a piece of small cord, > determine his > latitude approximately, and on moonlight nights, with favourable > stars, his > longitude, if he has a Nautical Almanac. Estimate limits of error > for each > determination." I like the competition, and the joke! Is there any record of any good answers to his proposed competition? Did anyone compete? Dan
