Skills used
Latitude & Longitude
Using scale to measure distance
Figuring travel time
Vocabulary
expedition
Materials Needed
Globe in Horizon Ring Mounting
Lesson
In this activity you will use your globe to learn of some of the hardships faced by one of the early explorers.
On your globe, place the number "1" at the western end of the Strait of Magellan at 54S/72W. Place the number "2" at 30S/90W; the number "3" at 10S, 120W; and the number "4" by the island of Guam at 14N/143E. Use your globe's mounting ring as a straight edge and draw a line that connects points 1 through 4.
What is the combined length of this route? (1.) _____________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________
This is the approximate route of Magellan's voyage across the Pacific in 1520 and 1521. It took Magellan's three remaining ships three months and twenty days to travel this distance. Before the ships reached Guam the sailors were reduced to eating rats (which sold for over a dollar apiece when they could be caught), ox hides, and sawdust. Nineteen men died on just this one segment of the Magellan expedition. Of the five ships that originally set out on the expedition, only one, the Victoria, completed the trip around the world and made it back to Spain. Even the Victoria, on a later voyage, would sink near the middle of the Atlantic with no survivors.
If the winds and currents had allowed Magellan to sail a great circle route from the Strait of Magellan to Guam, how far would he have had to sail? (2.) _____________________________
Use the Jet Airliner Cruising speed shown on your globe's mounting ring to determine how long it would take a modern airliner to travel this distance. (3.) ______________________________