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Why two steady rhythms can fight and still groove: the hidden grid of 3 against 2
Tap a steady beat with one hand and three evenly spaced taps in the same time with the other, and you get a 3:2 polyrhythm: two perfectly regular clocks that…
How a clock found longitude at sea: Harrison's H4 and the £20,000 prize
In 1707 a British fleet hit the rocks off Scilly because navigators could not find longitude. Seven years later Parliament offered £20,000 for a method…
How sailors found longitude before satellites: a race against the clock
Latitude is easy: measure the height of the Sun or the Pole Star. Longitude is hard, because the Earth turns one degree every four minutes. To know how far…