In 18th-century navigation, which cumulative outcome arose when consistently applying index error corrections incorrectly to sextant measurements?

💡 Explanation

When index error is consistently misapplied, a small angular offset accumulates over multiple sextant observations because each altitude reading introduces directional bias, causing consistent longitude miscalculations, resulting in eastward positional error. Therefore eastward drift is the outcome, rather than other errors unassociated with sextant error.

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