How do you navigate without a compass?

Answer 1

This may not be very elegant. It should be a sunny day, you should have a functioning watch, and you need not to be too desperate (you need some time). You want to find the moment when the sun is at its highest point in the sky for you, the observer. Put a stick firmly into the ground (as close to vertical as you can-- us a make-shift plumb) in such a way that you can mark the movement of the tip of the stick's shadow. I would do this before 11 am on your watch, given that you may not know where you are within your time zone, and solar noon doesn't line up exactly with noon standard time. Do this for as long as it takes to see a curve in the movement of the shadow, and a minimum distance between the shadow and the base of the stick (the curve comes down, and then goes up). The shortest line connecting the base of the stick and the tip of the shadow is north. This represents the moment when the sun transits the meridian, your local line connecting north and south. I think the longer the stick and the longer you have to make observations, the more accurate will be your results. Follow the direction of your noontime shadow. (Just don't keep following your shadow all day...) In a wilderness situation, this would probably be as accurate as the above, with much less trouble.

Answer 2

A compass uses a suspended magnetic rod to point to magnetic north using the Earth's magnetic field. The North magnetic pole is usually in northern Canada so magnetic north is usually a few degrees west of true north as seen from Europe.

Answer 3

There are a number of ways.

1. Drive a stake into the ground where the sun is shining on it. Put another stake in at the tip of the shadow of the stake. Do this three or for times about 30 minutes apart. The line between the shadow-stakes is a line going west-to-east.

2. In the forest, look to see if there is any moss on the sides of the trees. In the northern hemisphere, the mossy side of the tree - where the sun does not shine - is the north side.

3. On a clear night, find the Big Dipper. Draw a line from the bottom of the ladle to the pip of the ladle, and extend that line for seven times the distance. There a medium-bright star away from any other bright stars; this is Polaris, the North Star. That way is north. (unfortunately, there is no comparable "south star" in the southern sky.)

Answer 4

Only coincidentally. A magnetic compass points toward the magnetic north pole, a point which is slowly moving through far-northern Canada. The difference between magnetic north and true north is called "magnetic variation", or "mag var".

Lines of equal magnetic variation are printed on many charts. There is a line where the mag var is equal to zero; along that line, the magnetic compass does point toward true north.

Answer 5

Well one way is to look for moss on a tree, moss grows away from the sun. in North America that's on the north side.

Trees also grow towards the morning sun. trees tend to lean a little southeast.

Satellite dishes on houses point southwest as a rule in Ontario Canada where i live. if you know which way they point in your area then you can figure out north.

You could ask someone who knows.

Answer 6

Find the north star and that's north,then turn 180 degrees and there's south

Answer 7

You can use the stars' and constellations or a sextant.