Longitude

Way before stepped on both sides of the prime meridian in Greenwich, I had watched the movie "Longitude", about John Harrison's forty-year task to invent a system for determining longitude at sea with a nautical timepiece. Meanwhile, 200 years in the future, naval officer Rupert Gould discovers Harrison's neglected chronometers and sets out to restore them. 3 and a half hours of passion, determination, and discovery half based on the novel by Dava Sobel. It's another rare case that, the movie is more intriguing than the book. I hope science teacher will have a chance to show this kind of movie to students. Here's one of the comment online: One of the most fantastic teaching movies I have seen. I show this video to my Oceanography students at school. I love the back and forth movement between present and past, as the struggle to duplicate Harrison's work is mirrored in the struggle to create an instrument that would revolutionize ocean travel. I think nothing motivate the young more than the possibility of one's ability to change the world. Before Harrison's invention, sailors lost their lifes everyday because no one really knew where one really was in the open sea.