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A possible aid for navigators
Star charts, compasses, sextants, even dead reckoning. For centuries, sailors have used one or all of those to determine their position on the globe and to help them navigate from one place to...
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Finding our way
From research showing that adults in an Amazon village had about equal competence to Harvard students at basic geometry, Elizabeth Spelke drew a striking lesson. “Amazonian adults look like Harvard...
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A higher plane
Here’s a short geometry test: How many straight lines can be drawn connecting two points on a flat plane? If you make two angles on a triangle smaller, does the third get larger or smaller? If you...
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Here to there
John Huth was out kayaking one autumn day in 2003 when a fog rolled in. Without a compass and unable to see the shore, Huth used the direction of the wind to guide himself to safety. The next day, the...
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A better sense of place
Imagine trying to find your way across open water with no landmarks and no point of reference. That was the challenge that faced European navigators who launched the Age of Discovery in the 15th...
View ArticleHarvard Review’s Thompson explores the history and mystery of Polynesian...
The islands of Polynesia stretch over thousands of miles of ocean, presenting a daunting barrier to ancient people before the invention of magnetic compasses and modern navigation equipment. Yet early...
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