Longitude Act passed in July 1714. For details on many of the efforts towards determining the longitude, see History of longitude. The Longitude Act offered a series of rewards, rather than a single prize. The rewards increased with the accuracy achieved: £10,000 (worth over in ) for anyone who could find a practical way of determining longitude at sea to an accuracy of not greater than one degree of longitude (equates to at the equator). The reward was to be increased to £15,000 if the accuracy was not greater than 40 minutes, and further enhanced to £20,000 if the accuracy was not
Mean longitude angle between any physical objects. It is simply a convenient uniform measure of how far around its orbit a body has progressed since passing the reference direction. While mean longitude measures a mean position and assumes constant speed, true longitude measures the actual longitude and assumes the body has moved with its actual speed, which varies around its elliptical orbit. The difference between the two is known as the equation of the center. From the above definitions, define the "longitude of the pericenter" Then mean longitude is also Another form often seen is the "mean longitude at epoch", "ε". This