Portney’s Ponderables

Description

By Joe Portney

How high can a mountain be? Could Columbus find longitude? How close could Byrd attain the pole? Why did Lindburgh chose a single engined plane? How could Peary navigate to the North Pole without using his sextant? These and other intriguing ponderables await the reader. Now he can be a participant in the navigator’s dilemma: Where are we? Where are we going? How do we get there?

Twenty five puzzles are presented. Each is carefully and competently laid out. For example, the first puzzle concerning Columbus takes eight pages. Multiple choice questions are asked, and the correct answers with explanations are shown at the end of the book.

In this new millennium, it is appropriate that we pause to review some of the famous navigation controversies of earlier centuries, and demystify these events. Joe Portney has maintained a lifetime passion for historic events and puzzles. We are fortunate that he shares them with us. Available Spring 2010. SC, 2009, 158 pages SW .3 lbs.