How to determine the side of the world without a compass with the help of improvised means?

Knowledge of navigation has come to people for a long time. When there was absolutely no technology, people already knew how to determine the side of the world without a compass. Being able to do this was a very important procedure, starting from the time when it became necessary for the human family to move around, build structures, in a word, to perform tasks and solve problems directly related to the direction. And even today the ability to determine the sides of the world will not be superfluous, since there are a lot of circumstances that require it.

Determine the side of the world with the help of nature

In our time, even the presence of GPS is sometimes useless if the receiver is inaccessible to satellites (deep underground, for example). Also often such a receiver may not be at hand. In this situation, the problem of how to determine the side of the world without a compass can be solved by nature itself.

There are plants that were conditionally called compass. Their peculiarity is that they are able to position their leaves along the meridian, so that their faces look to the north and to the south. A similar "compass" plant grows in Russia. This is a wild lettuce, it can often be found in the garden as a weed.

One of the most proven ways to determine the side of the world without a compass with the help of natural phenomena is to examine trees, anthills, rocks or the night sky. On trees that love heat, branches and leaves grow most from the south side. Ants erect their anthills in such a way that their slope is slightly longer from the south and shorter from the north. Moss prefers to grow on the north side of stones or trees. Everyone knows the North Star, which is located near the constellation Ursa Major, also shines on the north side. It is the brightest and most visible among other stars and clusters.

Two ways to determine the sides of the world with the help of improvised means

Nature often presents unpleasant surprises. Nearby, there may not be any compass plants, no trees, no ants, or even moss, and the sky can be clouded at all. How to determine the side of the world without a compass in this case? Very simple. We use an arrow or a needle and a magnet.

1. The sides of the world by the clock are defined simply. At any time of the day before 6 pm we aim a small arrow on the Sun (it should be noted that even through the clouds it is often visible), then we draw in the mind the angle between it and the 2-hour mark of the dial, divide it in half, i.e. We find a bisector. She will point to the south.

2. Take a vessel with water (the dish will fit perfectly), put in it a floating flat object of small size (a piece of wood, a piece of polyethylene or foam), magnetize the needle by rubbing against a magnet or wool (you can even about the hair, but this is ineffective) and Put it on top of a floating object. The needle will tend to the north as long as it is magnetized. So it turns out a kind of compass.

Thus, using the methods described above to find one side of the world, it is easy to find out the rest. Looking to the north, the east will be on the right, the west to the left, the south to the rear.