Lord Kelvin, generally considered the father of modern navigational methods, expressed interest in a book of tables with which a navigator could avoid tedious trigonometric solutions. However, solving the many thousands of triangles involved would have made the project too costly. Computers finally provided a practical means of preparing tables. In 1936 the first volume of Pub. No. 214 was made available; later, Pub. No. 249 was provided for air navigators. Pub. No. 229, Sight Reduction Tables for Marine Navigation, has replaced Pub. No. 214.

Modern calculators are gradually replacing the tables. Scientific calculators with trigonometric functions can easily solve the navigational triangle. Navigational calculators readily solve celestial sights and perform a variety of voyage planning functions. Using a calculator generally gives more accurate lines of position because it eliminates the rounding errors inherent in tabular inspection and interpolation.

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