
A practical protractor at last: measuring tools | Tangente
A practical protractor at last!
What could be more commonplace in geometry than a protractor?


What could be more commonplace in geometry than a protractor?


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How can you determine your position when sailing offshore or along the coast? With land in sight, one or two landmarks are enough. On the open sea, sailors’ ingenuity led to the invention of sophisticated instruments such as the sextant and the Cras plotter. A little geometry is essential to use them.

Since antiquity, navigators have sought to find their position at sea, first developing instruments and then maps before the practice was standardized in the 19th century. This practical and strategic use of mathematics endured for centuries before other tools superseded it.
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