во к тексту
On a stormy night in 1707, four ships struck rocks off
the south coast of England and sank, One thousand, four
sailors were drowned. The ships had crashed
because they had no way of knowing how far they had
travelled in a particular direction, they could not calculate
their longitude, time measurement.
It was the selles.
dents at sea, and
stunned
difficult
circumstaasos.
10 disaster was a
the
The
it,
someone had find how
travelled east or west polar of depostane,
such as Sir Isaac: Newton had failed to a solution, so to
15 ensure the interest of Britain's greatest scientific minds, the
government offered a prize of 320,000 - the equivalent of
82.6 million in today's money. But to everyone's surprise, it.
wasn't a famous academic who solved the problem, but an
unknown carpenter.
20 When John Harrison wasn't working with wood, he was
making clocks. An accurate clock would allow sailors
to calculate their position, but at the time it was thought
impossible to create a mechanical clock that could work
on a ship, The movement of the sea and the changes in
25 temperature destroyed the delicate parts. However, after
frustrated attempts, Harrison's fourth sea clock, H4
triumphed. Its mechanics were so good that the H4
worked better than most clocks on land.
The Prize and Harrison's success generated a lot
30 of interest in the 18th century, but it was soon forgotten.
However, in 2013, the British government created a new
Longitude Prize, offering š10 million to the person who could
solve a great challenge to humanity. An enthralled public:
then took part in t programme where viewers chose one
35 challenge Irom a list of six for scientists to focus on. The
now is will someone be able to solve it just as well
as solved the challenge presented to him?