A compass is a navigational instrument for determining direction relative to the Earth's magnetic poles. It consists of a magnetized pointer (usually marked on the North end) free to align itself with Earth's magnetic field. The compass greatly improved the safety and efficiency of travel, especially ocean travel. A compass can be used to calculate heading, used with a sextant to calculate latitude, and with a marine chronometer to calculate longitude. It thus provides a much improved navigational capability that has only been recently supplanted by modern devices such as the Global Positioning System (GPS). A compass is any magnetically sensitive device capable of indicating the direction of the magnetic north of a planet's magnetosphere. The face of the compass generally highlights the cardinal points of north, south, east and west. Often, compasses are built as a stand alone sealed instrument with a magnetized bar or needle turning freely upon a pivot, or moving in a fluid, thus able to point in a northerly and southerly direction. The compass was invented in ancient China sometime before the 2nd century, and was used for navigation by the 11th century. The dry compass was invented in medieval Europe around 1300. This was supplanted in the early 20th century by the liquid-filled magnetic compass.
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The degrees points of compass v compass degrees bearings.
0 North
45 North East
90 East
135 South East
180 South
225 South West
270 West
315 North east
magnetic declination ( Variation) difference between true north and magnetic north
Magnetic deviation is the error induced in a compass by local magnetic fields, which must be allowed for, along with magnetic declination, if accurate bearings are to be calculated.
In marine navigation, a bearing is the direction one object is from another object, usually, the direction of an object from one's own vessel. In aircraft navigation, a bearing is the actual (corrected) compass direction of the forward course of the aircraft. In land navigation, a bearing is the angle between a line connecting two points and a north-south line, or meridian. . Bearings can be measured in two systems, Mils and Degrees. Under this definition, for example, a given azimuth in degrees would be expressed as 60°, while the equivalent bearing would be expressed as N 60° E.
Taking a Compass Bearing
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