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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 6: The Prize.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How many sailors died near the Scilly Islands?
(a) 500.
(b) 1,000.
(c) 4,000.
(d) 2,000.

2. What did the Longitude Act of 1714 establish?
(a) Taxes on the use of maps with longitude.
(b) A monetary prize for solving the problem of longitude.
(c) The lunar method as the government's way to calculate longitude.
(d) A uniform way to calculate longitude.

3. Where does the quote at the beginning of Chapter 3: Adrift in a Clockwork Universe have the author dreaming he is locked in?
(a) In a hidden basement.
(b) In a ship.
(c) On the moon.
(d) In his father's watch.

4. What did King Louis XIV of France complain about with more accurate measures of longitude?
(a) That the economic costs of not knowing longitude were bankrupting his country.
(b) That he was losing more territory to his astronomers than his enemies.
(c) That sea travel became more treacherous.
(d) That maps based on stars were inaccurate.

5. How accurate was the solution to longitude to be?
(a) At least five degrees.
(b) Less than ten degrees.
(c) Exact, no room for error.
(d) Within half a degree.

Short Answer Questions

1. When measuring longitude, each hour of time difference between the ship and starting point marks a progress of how many degrees of longitude?

2. What did Huygens and Hooke fight over?

3. How long did Harrison work before receiving his monetary reward?

4. What was the tool introduced by John Davis in 1595 to better look at the sun called?

5. What did WIlliam Whiston contribute to the longitude debate?

(see the answer key)

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