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Christopher Columbus Technology

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Technology’s Impact on the Voyage of Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus, an Italian sailor, voyaged the Atlantic ocean and discovered for himself the “New World” in 1492. The three ships Columbus sailed on are named the Pinta, the Santa Maria, and the Nina. Although Christopher Columbus is Italian, he carried out his work for Spaniards. Columbus used many forms of navigation including the system of dead reckoning, a magnetic compass, a nocturnal, and a sand glass. However, much of the technology sailors use in today’s time, such as an Electronic Chart Display Information System (ECDIS), a gyro compass, and a clock, would have given better assistance to Columbus in order to navigate his location. Therefore, those technologies and tools sailors put to use in today, would have been most beneficial to Christopher Columbus before he died. Columbus had access to a limited range of techniques to voyage across the ocean. One of which includes a system called dead reckoning. This is a process that sailors during the 1400s used in order to find their position while sailing by measuring the course and …show more content…

One of these tools include a gyro compass. This is a compass that does not require a magnetic field on the exterior like the one Christopher Columbus used. The gyro compass is based on a fast-spinning disc and the rotation of the Earth to automatically locate geographical direction. If Columbus were to use a gyro compass, the local magnetic fields would not have interfered with the compass. This tool gives a more accurate determination of the location of a person or in this case not only a person, but a ship too. This form of a compass uses a gyroscope, to keep the compass’ spinning disc level and balanced in turbulent, or rough, environments. If one were to enter a storm while sailing the gyro compass would stay level enough to direct the voyager out of the

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