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Object

Compass

The forerunner of GPS and Tomtom

Before the invention of the compass, sailors would steer by the sun during the day and by the stars at night.

Thanks to its magnet, the compass points to the north anywhere in the world. This makes it easier to establish one’s geographical longitude and latitude. The Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens designed the first really accurate instrument for measuring time in 1656: the pendulum clock. The advent of satellite-based location-finding systems such as GPS and TomTom means that any spot on earth can now be pinpointed.

Contributors
Jasper Visser
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