How long does it take to read Longitude?
Dava Sobel, William J. H. Andrewes, Irene Aldasoro Katarain
Longitude by Dava Sobel, William J. H. Andrewes, Irene Aldasoro Katarain takes about 3 hours 31 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 3 hours 31 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1995. 192 pages, about 52,800 words.
8 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 5 hours 52 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 3 hours 31 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 2 hours 12 minutes |
The page count is the median across 49 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
The dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of one man's forty-year obsession to find a solution to the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day--"the longitude problem." Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that "the longitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day-and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives and the increasing fortunes of nations hung on a resolution. One man, John Harrison, in complete opposition to the scientific community, dared to imagine a mechanical solution-a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land. Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world.
Subjects: Royal Society, Harrison timekeepers, Kendall timekeepers, Lunar distance method, Lunar tables, chronometer
