Posted: 5/11/2007 2:30:11 PM EDT
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I am sitting here bored so I thought I might share a nav technique or two. First how to find north with nothing but a stick. 1. shove stick in ground. 2. place marker at tip of stick's shadow, this is your first mark. 3. Wait 10-15 minutes, place another mark at the new location of the tip of the shadow. Draw a line between the two marks. Your first mark is west, second mark is east. North and south you should be able to figure out on your own. This works at any time of the day and any location on earth (well, maybe not at the poles) Second method gives an approximation of direction. 1. get out your trusty dial type wrist watch. Adjust time if you are on daylight savings. 2. Point the hour hand at the sun. 3. Halfway between the hour hand and 12:00 is south. If in southern hemisphere the halfway point would be north. This is not an exacting method but will get you pointed in the right direction. And if you have a fair idea of what the time and know what a analog watch face looks like you don't actually need the watch. I don't know if this is old info to y'all but it has been useful to me and I was bored. Carry on. |
I know about both of them. Good post for them that don't. OK how do you tell how many hours of daylight you have left. With nothing but your body? Hint I just posted the answer in GD 
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OK how do you tell how many hours of daylight you have left. With nothing but your body? Hint I just posted the answer in GD this may work for you at your location this month, but we uas it as a joke with young scouts at camp. we have had scouts work on proving this to others scouts by writing down how many fingers they have to the horizon at what time. at our lat. in the summer it is about 10-20 min for most but not consitent through the year. higher off the horizon more error. its good to gage time with something other then a watch. just don't place too much stock in it. 
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10-20 min in summer, sounds like 15min as I said. How long in winter? I'm in Alaska Lat 60 and it will not work for me. It will be close for lower 48'ers, but ture it changes as per your lat. Oh I lived 8 years in Oregon, Beautiful State. |