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Portolan
Portolan charts are nautical charts, first made in the 13th century in the Mediterranean basin and later expanded to include other regions. The word ''portolan'' comes from the Italian ''portulano'', meaning "related to ports or harbors", and which since at least the 17th century designates "a collection of sailing directions". Definition The term “portolan chart” was coined in the 1890s because at the time it was assumed that these maps were related to portolani, medieval or early modern books of sailing directions. Other names that have been proposed include rhumb line charts, compass charts or loxodromic charts whereas modern French scholars prefer to call them nautical charts to avoid any relationship with portolani. Several definitions of portolan chart coexist in the literature. A narrow definition includes only medieval or, at the latest, early modern sea charts (i.e. maps that primarily cover maritime rather than inland regions) that include a network of rhumb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhumbline Network
A rhumbline network, more properly called, a windrose network, or sometimes also called harbour-finding chart, compass chart, or rhumb chart, is a navigational aid drawn on early portolan charts dating from the medieval to early modern period. This network is like a web (see picture) forming a grid on the map. Before accurate surveying there was no method for measuring longitude at sea so maps possessed many distortions especially in the east west direction. There was also distortion due to the curvature of the Earth's surface. The multitude of compass roses with straight lines extending outwards across the map derived from how the maps were then made by compiling empirical observations from navigators who attempted to follow a constant bearing at sea. To calculate a course to follow from a ship's position to a point of desired destination, one would identify the windrose thought to be closest to the ship's position. Then, using a parallel rule, the "line of course" taken f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portolani
A rutter is a mariner's handbook of written sailing directions. Before the advent of nautical charts, rutters were the primary store of geographic information for maritime navigation. It was known as a ''periplus'' ("sailing-around" book) in classical antiquity and a '' portolano'' ("port book") to medieval Italian sailors in the Mediterranean Sea. Portuguese navigators of the 16th century called it a ''roteiro'', the French a ''routier'', from which the English word "rutter" is derived. In Dutch, it was called a ''leeskarte'' ("reading chart"), in German a ''Seebuch'' ("sea book"), and in Spanish a ''derrotero''. History Before the advent of nautical charts in the 14th century, navigation at sea relied on the accumulated knowledge of navigators and pilots. Plotting a course at sea required knowing the direction and distance between point A and point B. Knowledge of where places lay relative to each other was acquired by mariners during their long experience at sea. The ear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhumb Line
In navigation, a rhumb line, rhumb (), or loxodrome is an arc crossing all meridians of longitude at the same angle, that is, a path with constant bearing as measured relative to true north. Introduction The effect of following a rhumb line course on the surface of a globe was first discussed by the Portuguese mathematician Pedro Nunes in 1537, in his ''Treatise in Defense of the Marine Chart'', with further mathematical development by Thomas Harriot in the 1590s. A rhumb line can be contrasted with a great circle, which is the path of shortest distance between two points on the surface of a sphere. On a great circle, the bearing to the destination point does not remain constant. If one were to drive a car along a great circle one would hold the steering wheel fixed, but to follow a rhumb line one would have to turn the wheel, turning it more sharply as the poles are approached. In other words, a great circle is locally "straight" with zero geodesic curvature, whereas a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compass Rose
A compass rose, sometimes called a wind rose, rose of the winds or compass star, is a figure on a compass, map, nautical chart, or monument used to display the orientation of the cardinal directions (north, east, south, and west) and their intermediate points. It is also the term for the graduated markings found on the traditional magnetic compass. Today, a form of compass rose is found on, or featured in, almost all navigation systems, including nautical charts, non-directional beacons (NDB), VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) systems, global-positioning systems (GPS), and similar equipment. Types Linguistic anthropological studies have shown that most human communities have four points of cardinal direction. The names given to these directions are usually derived from either locally-specific geographic features (e.g. "towards the hills", "towards the sea") or from celestial bodies (especially the sun) or from atmospheric features (winds, temperature). Most mobile populations ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vellum
Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. Parchment is another term for this material, from which vellum is sometimes distinguished, when it is made from calfskin, as opposed to that made from other animals, or otherwise being of higher quality. Vellum is prepared for writing or printing on, to produce single pages, scrolls, codices, or books. Modern scholars and custodians increasingly use only the less specific, potentially-confusing term "membrane".Stokes and Almagno 2001, 114Clemens and Graham 2007, pp. 9–10. Depending on factors such as the method of preparation it may be very hard to determine the animal species involved (let alone its age) without using a laboratory, and the term avoids the need to distinguish between vellum and parchment. Vellum is generally smooth and durable, although there are great variations depending on preparation and the quality of the skin. The manufacture involves the cleaning, bleaching, stretchin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magnetic Declination
Magnetic declination, or magnetic variation, is the angle on the horizontal plane between magnetic north (the direction the north end of a magnetized compass needle points, corresponding to the direction of the Earth's magnetic field lines) and true north (the direction along a meridian towards the geographic North Pole). This angle varies depending on position on the Earth's surface and changes over time. Somewhat more formally, Bowditch defines variation as “the angle between the magnetic and geographic meridians at any place, expressed in degrees and minutes east or west to indicate the direction of magnetic north from true north. The angle between magnetic and grid meridians is called grid magnetic angle, grid variation, or grivation.” By convention, declination is positive when magnetic north is east of true north, and negative when it is to the west. '' Isogonic lines'' are lines on the Earth's surface along which the declination has the same constant value, and lin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bearing (navigation)
In navigation, bearing or azimuth is the horizontal angle between the direction of an object and north or another object. The angle value can be specified in various angular units, such as degrees, mils, or grad. More specifically: * Absolute bearing refers to the angle between the magnetic north (''magnetic bearing'') or true north (''true bearing'') and an object. For example, an object to due east would have an absolute bearing of 90 degrees. Thus, it is the same as azimuth.U.S. Army, ''Advanced Map and Aerial Photograph Reading'', Headquarters, War Department, Washington, D.C. (17 September 1941), pp. 24-2/ref> * #Relative, Relative bearing refers to the angle between the craft's forward direction ( heading) and the location of another object. For example, an object relative bearing of 0 degrees would be immediately in front; an object relative bearing 180 degrees would be behind. Bearings can be measured in mils, points, or degrees. Thus, it is the same as an ''a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magnetic North Pole
The north magnetic pole, also known as the magnetic north pole, is a point on the surface of Earth's Northern Hemisphere at which the planet's magnetic field points vertically downward (in other words, if a magnetic compass needle is allowed to rotate in three dimensions, it will point straight down). There is only one location where this occurs, near (but distinct from) the geographic north pole. The geomagnetic north pole is the northern antipodal pole of an ideal dipole model of the Earth's magnetic field, which is the most closely fitting model of Earth's actual magnetic field. The north magnetic pole moves over time according to magnetic changes and flux lobe elongation in the Earth's outer core. In 2001, it was determined by the Geological Survey of Canada to lie west of Ellesmere Island in northern Canada at . It was situated at in 2005. In 2009, while still situated within the Canadian Arctic at , it was moving toward Russia at between per year. As of 2021, the p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Discover (magazine)
''Discover'' is an American general audience science magazine launched in October 1980 by Time Inc. It has been owned by Kalmbach Publishing since 2010. History Founding ''Discover'' was created primarily through the efforts of ''Time'' magazine editor Leon Jaroff. He noticed that magazine sales jumped every time the cover featured a science topic. Jaroff interpreted this as a considerable public interest in science, and in 1971, he began agitating for the creation of a science-oriented magazine. This was difficult, as a former colleague noted, because "Selling science to people who graduated to be managers was very difficult".Hevesi, Dennis"Leon Jaroff, Editor at Time and Discover Magazines, Dies at 85" ''The New York Times'', 21 October 2012 Jaroff's persistence finally paid off, and ''Discover'' magazine published its first edition in 1980. ''Discover'' was originally launched into a burgeoning market for science magazines aimed at educated non-professionals, intended t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mediterranean Chart Fourteenth Century2
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The Sea has played a central role in the history of Western civilization. Geological evidence indicates that around 5.9 million years ago, the Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic and was partly or completely desiccated over a period of some 600,000 years during the Messinian salinity crisis before being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago. The Mediterranean Sea covers an area of about , representing 0.7% of the global ocean surface, but its connection to the Atlantic via the Strait of Gibraltar—the narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates the Iberian Peninsula in Europe from Morocco in Africa—is only wide. The Mediterranean Sea e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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