Thursday, January 10, 2013

QQC Chapter 4

Quote: "Halley was an exceptional figure. In the course of a long and productive career, he was a
sea captain, a cartographer, a professor of geometry at the University of Oxford, deputy
controller of the Royal Mint, astronomer royal, and inventor of the deep-sea diving bell. He
wrote authoritatively on magnetism, tides, and the motions of the planets, and fondly on the
effects of opium. He invented the weather  map and actuarial table, proposed methods for
working out the age of the Earth and its distance from the Sun, even devised a practical
method for keeping fish fresh out of season. The one thing he didn't do, interestingly enough,
was discover the comet that bears his name."

Question: "Where did he find the time to do all of this?"

Comment: It's interesting how he did all of these things but was mostly just honored by having a comet that he didn't discover be named after him. It's also interesting how most of the things he did connect to being a sea captain.

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