Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
E639470
"Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time" is a popular science and history book that recounts clockmaker John Harrison’s quest to solve the 18th-century problem of determining longitude at sea.
All labels observed (2)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7050561 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time Context triple: [Dava Sobel, subjectOf, Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time]
-
A.
In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed the World
In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed the World is a popular science book by mathematician Ian Stewart that explores the history, impact, and ideas behind seventeen landmark mathematical equations that have shaped modern civilization.
-
B.
The Measure of Reality
The Measure of Reality is a historical study by Alfred W. Crosby that explores how quantification and measurement transformed Western thought and culture from the Middle Ages onward.
-
C.
Subtle is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein
Subtle is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein is a highly regarded scientific biography that explores both Albert Einstein’s personal life and the development and impact of his groundbreaking physics.
-
D.
How to Win the Nobel Prize: An Unexpected Life in Science
"How to Win the Nobel Prize: An Unexpected Life in Science" is a memoir by Nobel Prize–winning scientist J. Michael Bishop that recounts his unconventional journey in biomedical research and offers insights into the nature of scientific discovery.
-
E.
The Great Mathematical Problems
The Great Mathematical Problems is a popular mathematics book by Ian Stewart that explores some of the most famous unsolved and historically significant problems in mathematics for a general audience.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time Target entity description: "Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time" is a popular science and history book that recounts clockmaker John Harrison’s quest to solve the 18th-century problem of determining longitude at sea.
-
A.
In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed the World
In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed the World is a popular science book by mathematician Ian Stewart that explores the history, impact, and ideas behind seventeen landmark mathematical equations that have shaped modern civilization.
-
B.
The Measure of Reality
The Measure of Reality is a historical study by Alfred W. Crosby that explores how quantification and measurement transformed Western thought and culture from the Middle Ages onward.
-
C.
Subtle is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein
Subtle is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein is a highly regarded scientific biography that explores both Albert Einstein’s personal life and the development and impact of his groundbreaking physics.
-
D.
How to Win the Nobel Prize: An Unexpected Life in Science
"How to Win the Nobel Prize: An Unexpected Life in Science" is a memoir by Nobel Prize–winning scientist J. Michael Bishop that recounts his unconventional journey in biomedical research and offers insights into the nature of scientific discovery.
-
E.
The Great Mathematical Problems
The Great Mathematical Problems is a popular mathematics book by Ian Stewart that explores some of the most famous unsolved and historically significant problems in mathematics for a general audience.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (41)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
history book ⓘ |
| adaptation |
Longitude (1999 television film)
ⓘ
linked to:
Longitude (2000 television film)
|
| author | Dava Sobel ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| depicts |
British government longitude prize
ⓘ
competition between clockmakers and astronomers ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
British Board of Longitude
ⓘ
linked to:
Board of Longitude
development of accurate sea clocks ⓘ quest to determine longitude at sea ⓘ |
| genre |
history of science
ⓘ
popular science ⓘ |
| hasFormat |
audiobook
ⓘ
e-book ⓘ hardcover ⓘ paperback ⓘ |
| hasOCLCNumber | 32820372 ⓘ |
| hasSubtitle | The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time ⓘ |
| mainCharacter | John Harrison ⓘ |
| mainTheme |
individual ingenuity in science
ⓘ
intersection of science, technology, and exploration ⓘ |
| notableFor |
explaining the longitude problem to a general audience
ⓘ
popularizing the story of John Harrison ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | English ⓘ |
| portrays |
history of navigation
ⓘ
scientific and technological innovation ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1995 ⓘ |
| publisher | Walker & Company ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
history of cartography
ⓘ
history of the Royal Navy ⓘ timekeeping ⓘ |
| settingLocation |
Atlantic Ocean
ⓘ
Great Britain ⓘ |
| subject |
John Harrison
ⓘ
longitude problem ⓘ marine chronometer ⓘ marine navigation ⓘ |
| targetAudience | general audience ⓘ |
| timePeriodCovered | 18th century ⓘ |
| timePeriodOfPublication | 1990s ⓘ |
| writingStyle | narrative non-fiction ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time Description of subject: "Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time" is a popular science and history book that recounts clockmaker John Harrison’s quest to solve the 18th-century problem of determining longitude at sea.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Dava Sobel
→
subjectOf
→
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
ⓘ
Longitude
→
subtitle
→
The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
ⓘ
linked to: Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
→
hasSubtitle
→
The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
ⓘ
linked to: Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time