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← HistoryWhich consequence occurred during 18th-century celestial navigation when sextant mirror misalignment was undetected?
A)Systematic errors in calculated longitude✓
B)Random variations in observed altitudes
C)Increased reliance on dead reckoning
D)Underestimation of ship's latitude
💡 Explanation
When sextant mirrors are misaligned, systematic errors arise because the angular measurements are consistently biased, leading to consistent discrepancies in calculated positions, especially impacting longitude determination on long voyages. Therefore, systematic longitude errors resulted, rather than random variations, dead reckoning increase, or latitude errors which would stem from other sources like weather or observational height inaccuracies.
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