Primarily, the compass was used for geomancy for a long time before it was used for navigation Ancient Chinese alchemists realized that the magnetite ore would point towards a magnetic north. Their ...

These materials ... According to ancient records, natural magnets were employed in China as direction-finding devices. This led to the first compass, called a sinan (south-pointing ladle) during ...

Qian Xun is a direction marked on the ancient Chinese compass, and 15 gengs is about 150 nautical miles. The manual covers sea routes, weather conditions, wind directions and ocean currents for ...

No other book so deftly makes the connections from ancient China to Ben Franklin to Michael Faraday while teaching physics at the same time. A distinctive characteristic of this book is the detailed ...