Which inaccuracy plagued early 18th-century sextant measurements aboard wooden ships during ocean voyages?

💡 Explanation

When a sextant is used on a ship, wave motion causes structural flexure because wooden hulls are not perfectly rigid, affecting the angle measurement. Therefore, structural flexure contributes the greatest error rather than atmospheric refraction, thermal expansion, or parallax, which affect all sextants similarly but differently at sea.

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