The dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest: the search for the solution of how to calculate longitude and the unlikely triumph of an English genius. In the 18th century ‘the longitude problem’ was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day — and had been for centuries. Thousands of sailors’ lives, and the fortunes of nations depended on finding a solution. In 1714 Parliament offered £20,000 to anyone whose method or device proved successful. One man, John Harrison, dared to imagine a mechanical solution to the problem. This is an extraordinary tale of astronomy and navigation, political intrigue and academic back-biting, intellectual brilliance ... and clockmaking. Dava Sobel makes the history and science of this story readily accessible to everyone. (184 pages)
Level: A/B (excerpts)/Interdisciplinary projects with mathematics, physics, history etc.

Following the death of her brilliant mathematician father (whom she sacrificed college to care for), twenty-five-year-old Catherine is left in limbo, struggling to come to terms with his legacy. Inheriting some of both his genius and his instability, she is torn between her pushy successful sister, Claire, who wants to take her back to New York, and Hal, a former student of her father's, who shows up even before the funeral wanting to root through the countless notebooks her father kept in the years of his decline, hoping to find mathematical gold. Catherine does not want to leave, and things become more complicated as she and Hal tentatively begin to develop a relationship. She gives him the key to a drawer in her father's desk, where the “gold” waits in the form of a notebook filled with the most original and astonishing mathematical proof Hal has seen in years. Thrilled, he wants to take immediate steps to have the proof published in her father's name, until Catherine shocks both him and Claire by declaring that she is its author. Hal (who has his own ambitions) is incredulous and Clair doubts her claims and even her sanity. What “proof” does Catherine have? Among the themes here are the elusiveness of genius, the difficulty of a mathematical proof, the uncertainties of love and trust, and the nature of personal integrity. David Auburn's play won the Pullitzer Prize. (83 pages)
Level: A/B/Interdisciplinary projects with mathematics etc.