How did ancient people navigate and navigate
The earliest invention of human being was the compass, the compass. In the first place, people were not able to see the sun and the North Star until the weather was too bad. The Voyager will rub an iron needle into a magnet, fix it on a straw, and hang it in a bowl of water. The compass was introduced into Europe from China in twelfth Century, and was later transformed into "North" by European navigators.
The initial navigation observation of the sun by day night observation height, Polaris azimuth to determine latitude, rely on the celestial positioning, navigator using a very simple instrument to measure the angle of celestial bodies, called "Jacob rod". The observer has two poles connected at the top, bottom and above the horizon, a celestial alignment (star or sun), can measure angle. Then calculate the latitude and the range by using the difference of the declination. This technique is called "latitude navigation", but it is very difficult to determine longitude. Nevertheless, the method of "latitude" is still widely used in Western Europe, placing itself at the same latitude as the destination, and then keeping it on the line until it reaches its destination. But this is not entirely scientific, even today, still using astronomical positioning error in 1-2 nautical miles, there was almost no decent navigation tools, imagine the error.
Around 1250, the marine magnetic compass has been developed to continuously measure all horizontal directions with an accuracy of less than 3 degrees. But the magnetic compass is not widely accepted by europeans. It is not yet possible to scientifically explain why a pointer is "found" in the north, and it is soon to be found that the north is often inaccurate. Because they do not know the iron needle refers to the magnetic north pole, not the true north (during the angle is called magnetic declination). At that time, people could not explain these phenomena, so they did not believe in the compass in an unknown place. Therefore, the original compass is very mysterious, the general sailors do not dare to use the sea, only those bold and cautious captain secretly used, put it into a small box, not to let others see. The compass is widely used in Europe, is the late thirteenth Century.
