John Harrison

High school (ages 12+)
Science & Technology

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/john-harrison

1. When was John Harrison born?
2. Where was John Harrison born?
3. What is the career?
4. What did John Harrison build that helped sailors find their way across the ocean?
5. Why was it hard for sailors to find their longitude before Harrison's clocks?

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. When was John Harrison born?April 3, 1693
2. Where was John Harrison born?Foulby, Yorkshire, England
3. What is the career?Carpenter and self-taught clockmaker
4. What did John Harrison build that helped sailors find their way across the ocean?John Harrison built marine chronometers, special clocks that kept accurate time even while a ship was moving.
5. Why was it hard for sailors to find their longitude before Harrison's clocks?Sailors could find latitude with stars, but without a precise clock they couldn't tell how far east or west they were, leading to dangerous drift and shipwrecks.

Marine Chronometer: A highly accurate, portable timepiece designed to maintain precise time at sea, crucial for calculating longitude.
Longitude: The angular distance, measured in degrees east or west of the Prime Meridian, that specifies the east-west position of a point on Earth's surface.
Latitude: The angular distance, measured in degrees north or south of the Equator, that specifies the north-south position of a point on Earth's surface.
Horology: The study and measurement of time; the art of making clocks and watches.