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How did sailors find their latitude before radio navigation aids were invented?
Wiki User
∙ 15y ago
By navigation using the stars. Sailors measured the position of the stars above the horizon using a sextant, from a table of known postions of the stars. This method also requires that you know the time of day, which is taken from a known point at Greenwich in England (Greenwich Mean Time GMT). Every place on earth takes its time from being plus or minus so many hours from GMT.
Wiki User
∙ 15y ago
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How did sailors find there longitude before radio navigation aids were invented?
They often used an instrument know as a sextant which used the stars to help navigate. Follow the related link (below) for more information.
What did sailors rely on before compasses were invented?
Sailors rely on stars before compasses were invented, some sailors rely on landmarks too! (But most sailors who rely on landmarks get lost, just think of it your in the Atlantic ocean there are no land marks just water, they did that about five ((5)) years then saw a pattern in the stars to help them get where there going, so before the compass they used stars.)
Was did people use before the invention of compass?
The used the stars in the night sky for navigation in darkness (using the north stars altitude to work out latitude) , the sun during the day. The first Western civilization known to have developed the art of navigation at sea were the Phoenicians, about 4,000 years ago (c. 2000 BC). Phoenician sailors accomplished navigation by using primitive charts and observations of the Sun and stars to determine directions. Some of the early instruments used to assist sailors in determining latitude were the cross staff, astrolabe, and quadrant. The astrolabe dates back to ancient Greece, when it was used by astronomers to help tell time, and was first used by mariners in the fifteenth century. It was used to measure the altitude of the Sun and stars to determine latitude.
How was it before the compass was invented?
sailors had to study the stars. if it was cloudy one day and you couldn't see the stars you had to guess which direction
What British law not enforced before 1763?
Navigation Act
How does Miami latitude affect its climate?
"Latitude" is a purely human invention, and has only been around for a few hundred years. No point on earth knows or cares how we define or describe its latitude, and its latitude has no effect on its climate. Long before latitude was invented and Miami's had been measured, the climate there was exactly the same as it is now.
Do the explorers have any training before they start their journey?
No. Some had been sailors on other ships. Columbus is reported to have gone to Prince Henry's school of navigation, but for the most part it took a lot of guts to get on a small ship with sailors that were not always the nicest people and who came out of jail that morning and to go without knowing where they were going.
Was the navigation act after the quartering act?
no the navigation act was before the quartering act
Were the hebrews the first great sailors and traders?
No, the Phoenicians were sailors and traders long before the Hebrews.
What was life on a caravel like for explorers?
During the times of Magellan, life on a caravel was very miserable. Sailors had a limited food supply of hardtack, a cracker made out of flour, which was usually vile and infested with rat feces and urine. The hammock had not yet been invented before columbus, so sailors slept on the deck. Sailors suffered from malnutrition, starvation, disease, and scurvy.
What did navigators rely on to find their way before compasses were invented?
Sighting the sun or stars, but that only gave latitude. To get longitude required an ultra precise chronometer.
How does latitude and longitude apply to mathematics?
Once upon a time, before GPS, sailors spent hours with mathematical tables to work out their position (latitude & longitude) from the angle of the sun or stars above the horizon. If they got it wrong, they might get lost and run out of food, or hit a rock in fog and sink. If the Earth is approximated as a sphere (it's actually a bit flat on top), latitude and longitude can be calculated using spherical geometry. In practice, sailors used tables of precalculated functions, e.g. haversines, and worksheets which reduce the problem to following rules and doing a lot of arithmetic.
