Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I think this post is right that Franklin would've been impressed by GPS. The author doesn't call it out, but the Longitude Problem was a significant area of scientific and engineering inquiry in Franklin's lifetime, with special focus on the difficulty of doing so at sea. I haven't looked into it, but given his research mapping the Gulf Stream it seems likely he spent time on the problem himself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_longitude



If only Ben Franklin had access to https://ciechanow.ski/gps/, he could’ve invented GPS to solve it!


this reminds me of that site linked here last year that explained and diagrammed the inner workings of a wristwatch. I used singlefile to save the page, as i do with any page that impresses me (or is noteworthy or newsworthy or needs to be saved as proof, etc)


Would that be this one? https://ciechanow.ski/mechanical-watch/

I’d love to know that those pages are offline-archivable!


singlefile does not archive the animated parts, unfortunately. At least not by default.


Indeed, GPS is when you think about it, possible in theory but practically impossible. So it must be magic!

PS I believe I found a little mistake in the article: '...and because the GPS device also has a perfect clock...'




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: