Everyone has been in the outdoors at some point and wondered which direction they where traveling or possibly even been lost. So if you don't have a compass, how does the average person figure out direction of travel?
Here's 3 different methods to try during the daytime:
- Shadowless Stick Method: Place a stick in the ground and then move or adjust it until the shadow disappears completely, soon it will reappear with the shadow running roughly East/West.
- Shadow Stick Method: Place a stick in the ground and mark the tip of the shadow it casts with a small stick or stake in the ground. Then wait 10 minutes and repeat, after 30 minutes or longer, you'll have a row of small sticks marking the East/West line (North/South is perpendicular to this line).
- Watch Method: Take a fine stick and place it in the center of the watch hands (do not use a digital watch), hold the watch level and rotate the whole watch until the sticks shadow is parallel with and/or falling over the hour hand. 1/2 way between the hour hand and 12 o'clock is North/South.
(Here's the digital watch version: Just draw a basic watch pattern on paper with the hour hand indicating the correct time and repeat the steps above based on the correct time).
And lets not to forget you nightime travelers, here
Jul 22, 2010
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