Ole Roemer and the Speed of Light
A solution to an accurate measurement of longitude for shipping was one of the biggest scientific problems of the time and involved some of the brightest minds in the world working over decades and centuries.<p>After losing almost 2,000 sailors and 4 Navy ships in an accident attributed to poor navigation, the British government offered the Longitude Prize - which was worth millions of dollars in todays money.<p>From Gallileo and his method of timekeeping by tracking the moons of Jupiter, through to John Harrison and his invention of the chronometer - which ended up winning most of the Longitude Prize - the effort that went into finding a solution had many side effects for science and the solution opened up the world to better navigation and the eventual colonization.<p>The entire story is chronicled in the book 'Longitude'[0], which was a best seller in 1998. It is well worth a read. Wikipedia is also a good starting point for finding out more.[1]<p>[0] <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Longitude-Genius-Greatest-Scientific-Problem/dp/080271529X" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Longitude-Genius-Greatest-Scientific-P...</a><p>[1] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_longitude" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_longitude</a>