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Title: Drawing the Line : How Mason and Dixon Surveyed the Most Famous Border in America by Edwin Danson ISBN: 0-471-38502-6 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 08 December, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.27 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Response to Ed Moorehead's review
Comment: Drawing the Line was written to appeal to a wide readership - complex astronomy and survey maths are deliberately excluded. Nevertheless it is very gratifying when someone has a go at checking something difficult. Ed Moorehead got 'hung up' on the distance of one degree of latitude at the equator and pole. The book is correct - his understandable confusion arises due to the fact that the Earth is elliptical and not circular and the fact that 'astronomical' verticals do not pass through the centre of the Earth.
Rating: 4
Summary: Questions on this and other books
Comment: Enjoyed the book very much, but still hung up on the distance equivalents of one degree of latitude at the equator and pole, page 30. At the pole, closer to the center of the earth, the distance should be shorter than at the equator, not longer. In fact, using the radii, I calculate 69.17 miles at the equator and 68.84 miles at the pole. Am I missing something?
The books on Lewis and Clark always leave me with a celestial navigation question which someone may be able to answer for me. Meriwether Lewis was instructed in celestial navigation before heading west. He was to take data at key junctions to establish longitude and latitude. He did, but never reduced the observations to useable data. I never heard if the observations, reduced after the trip, were of any value. Any help?
Rating: 5
Summary: Well written history of the boundary dispute
Comment: I found this book very interesting. Both in the facts surrounding the surveying of the Mason-Dixon line and the life of the people living at that time. The descriptions given in the book about the political power and its misuse reminded me that in those terms, things are still the same today. The brutality of some of the people toward others (both here and abroad)is still true today. It was very interesting to note that some of the people who lived such short lives did manage to accomplish quite a lot. The people seemed to endured the elements and harsh weather conditions much better back then also, without complaining. The power of a persons mind to come up with a solution about the boundary dispute and the accuracy that was attained using rather crude instruments(by todays standards)was well worth noticing. Excellant book overall. Would make a good mini-series for Ken Burns to produce.
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Title: Walkin' the Line by William Ecenbarger, Bill Ecenbarger ISBN: 0871319101 Publisher: M Evans & Co Pub. Date: 15 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon ISBN: 0805058370 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: April, 1998 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Measuring America: How an Untamed Wilderness Shaped the United States and Fulfilled the Promise of Democracy by Andro Linklater ISBN: 0802713963 Publisher: Walker & Co Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: The Measure of All Things : The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error That Transformed the World by Ken Alder ISBN: 0743216768 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel ISBN: 0140258795 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1996 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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