Marching lines are a pair of lines drawn on the glass of a
compass
A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with ...
, and arranged at 45 degrees to each other. These are an essential component in hiking through the wilderness. Most modern compasses have adjustable luminous marching lines.
See also
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Azimuth
An azimuth (; from ar, اَلسُّمُوت, as-sumūt, the directions) is an angular measurement in a spherical coordinate system. More specifically, it is the horizontal angle from a cardinal direction, most commonly north.
Mathematicall ...
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Beam compass
A beam compass is a compass with a beam and sliding sockets or cursors for drawing and dividing circles larger than those made by a regular pair of compasses. The instrument can be as a whole, or made on the spot with individual sockets (called ...
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Circumferentor
A circumferentor, or surveyor's compass, is an instrument used in surveying to measure horizontal angles. It was superseded by the theodolite in the early 19th century.
A circumferentor consists of a circular brass box containing a magnetic n ...
, or surveyor's compass
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Coordinate system
In geometry, a coordinate system is a system that uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine the position of the points or other geometric elements on a manifold such as Euclidean space. The order of the coordinates is sig ...
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Fluxgate compass
The basic fluxgate compass is a simple electromagnetic device that employs two or more small coils of wire around a core of highly permeable magnetic material, to directly sense the direction of the horizontal component of the Earth's magnetic fie ...
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Gyrocompass
A gyrocompass is a type of non-magnetic compass which is based on a fast-spinning disc and the rotation of the Earth (or another planetary body if used elsewhere in the universe) to find geographical direction automatically. The use of a gyroc ...
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Inertial navigation system
An inertial navigation system (INS) is a navigation device that uses motion sensors (accelerometers), rotation sensors ( gyroscopes) and a computer to continuously calculate by dead reckoning the position, the orientation, and the velocity (dire ...
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Pelorus
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Radio direction finder
Direction finding (DF), or radio direction finding (RDF), isin accordance with International Telecommunication Union (ITU)defined as radio location that uses the reception of radio waves to determine the direction in which a radio station ...
References
Further reading
*
Amir Aczel, ''The Riddle of the Compass: The Invention that Changed the World'',
* ''Admiralty manual of navigation'', Chapter XXV "The Magnetic Compass (continued) the analysis and correction of the deviation", His Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1914.
* Paul J. Gans
"Compass"The Medieval Technology Pages
*
Frances and Joseph Gies, ''Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel'' subtitled "Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages".
* Frederic Lane, "The Economic Meaning of the Invention of the Compass", ''American Historical Review'', vol. 68, pp. 605–617 (1963)
* Joseph Needham, Colin A. Ronan: ''The Shorter Science & Civilisation in China'' Vol 3 Chapter 1 "Magnetism and Electricity".
* Petra G. Schmidl
Two Early Arabic Sources on the Magnetic Compass'
* Science Friday,
(interview with Amir Aczel, first broadcast on
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
on May 31, 2002).
* ''The Tides'' by
Sir William Thomson (Lord Kelvin)
* Williams, J.E.D. ''From Sails to Satellites''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
External links
USGS Geomagnetism Program* Evening Lecture To The British Association At The Southampton Meeting on Friday, August 25, 188
Refers to compass correction by
Fourier series
A Fourier series () is a summation of harmonically related sinusoidal functions, also known as components or harmonics. The result of the summation is a periodic function whose functional form is determined by the choices of cycle length (or ''p ...
.
* Arrick Robots. Robotics.com Example implementation for digital solid-state compass.
ARobot Digital Compass App Note'
Navigational equipment
Hiking equipment
Orientation (geometry)
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