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Asked by Aswin to Tom, Jennifer, Jen, Imogen, Hephzi on 9 Mar 2015.
Question: How do you work out were north,south,east and west without a compass
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Thomas Barrett answered on 9 Mar 2015:
The sun rises in the East and sets in the West. From there you can use (going clockwise):
Never
Eat
Shredded
Wheatto work out the other directions.
At night you can look for the pole star which is in the North. This is done by first finding the big dipper then going up from the bowl of the big dipper till you see a bright star with little else around it. This trick will only work in the Northen Hemisphere. If your in Australia for example look for the Southern Cross which is a giant cross of stars. Follow the long part of the cross in a straight line to get South.
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Imogen Napper answered on 9 Mar 2015:
Same answer as Tom 🙂
Sun rises in the east, and sets in the west.
You can use sticks however to test this theory!
Find a stick (about 3ft long) and place it on a flat piece of ground.
You should then be able to see it’s shadow!
Mark the top of the shadow! You could do this with a stone!
Wait 10-15 minutes and then mark the top of the shadows new position.
Draw a line through the two marks to obtain an approximate east-west line. The first mark will always be west. Stand with the first mark (west) to your left and the second mark to your right.
You are now facing north!! -
Jennifer Rudd answered on 9 Mar 2015:
Wow Imogen…that is a cool experiment! I usually just look at where the sun is and the time of day.
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Comments
Aswin commented on :
Thank you
---*DA_LONELY_EMO*--- commented on :
aren’t there parts of the world were it sets in the east??????????????????????????
Imogen commented on :
Yes, the sun ALWAYS rises in the east and sets in the west. This is because the earth spins on its axis, from west to east. The spinning is what causes the day/night cycle; the earth completes one rotation in 24 hours. For the same reason, at night, the stars move from east to west across the sky.