Fun Facts
Tools of Navigation: A Kid's Guide to the
History and Science of Finding Your Way

Viking sailors used ravens to determine how far they were from land. They released the birds when they thought land was near; if the birds circled the ship and came back, the sailors knew they were still far at sea. If the birds flew off in a Particular direction, the ship would follow them towards land and food.

The ancient Chinese invented the first magnetic compass.

Most early explorers, including Columbus and Magellan, thought the earth was 18,000 miles in diameter—it is actually approximately 24,900 miles in diameter.

Captain James Cook was the first navigator to use a marine chronometer to chart parts of the Pacific Ocean coastline, including the islands of Tahiti and New Zealand.

Desert air often makes objects in the distance appear much closer than they actually are.

Ancient desert navigators followed animal tracks and the flight paths of birds because these eventually led to oases and water.

Rivers east of the Continental Divide flow to the Atlantic Ocean; rivers west of the Continental Divide flow to the Pacific Ocean.

John Wesley Powell, a one-armed Civil War veteran, was the first white person to travel the length of the Grand Canyon by boat.

David Livingstone walked more than 3,000 miles through Africa, mapping the midsection of the continent. Along the way he discovered—and named—Victoria Falls in Kenya.

Mathew Henson was the first black American explorer. He went to the North Pole with Robert Peary in 1909.