Now we get a chance to look at actual routes explorers took in terms of what we have learned about ocean currents. 
Sam traced the routes of Magellan's first trip around the world (1519-1522)...
 |
| Source: Ocean Currents, Catherine Halversen, Kevin Beals, Craig Strang, Lawrence Hall of Science |
and then laid this tracing over surface and...
deep currents maps to see how the trip probably was affected by currents.
 |
| Source: Ocean Currents, Catherine Halversen, Kevin Beals, Craig Strang, Lawrence Hall of Science |
deep currents maps to see how the trip probably was affected by currents.
The green arrows represent where surface currents crossed Magellan's route. The blue arrows represent where deep currents crossed Magellan's route. Did he use the currents to his benefit or did he have to fight the currents at any point? What about places with little current?
He went over Magellan's route, coloring it purple where it went with the currents and orange where it did not get the current's help. Sometimes he even went against the current.
We then did the same thing with Captain Cook's second trip around the world (1772-1775).
He went over Magellan's route, coloring it purple where it went with the currents and orange where it did not get the current's help. Sometimes he even went against the current.
He immediately saw that Captain Cook's route almost always followed the currents. We noted that it was over three hundred years between the two trip and supposed that perhaps they had learned much more about how to take advantage of the currents over that period of time.
Originally posted Feb 24, 2011
I made a chalkboard globe for the girls last week, and one of the projects that I'm the most exciting about doing is studying navigation routes and illustrating them on our globe.
ReplyDelete