Scribd
Upload
13K views1 page

32 Cardinal Points of Compass

The four cardinal directions of North, East, South, and West originated from the wind rose and formed the basis for the 32 points used in early compasses. Red, blue, black and green were commonly used colors on the compass rose as they were most distinguishable in low light. Reciting all 32 points of the compass in clockwise order is called "boxing the compass" and provides a way to generally refer to a heading without precise degrees.

Uploaded by

RL Reco
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
13K views1 page

32 Cardinal Points of Compass

The four cardinal directions of North, East, South, and West originated from the wind rose and formed the basis for the 32 points used in early compasses. Red, blue, black and green were commonly used colors on the compass rose as they were most distinguishable in low light. Reciting all 32 points of the compass in clockwise order is called "boxing the compass" and provides a way to generally refer to a heading without precise degrees.

Uploaded by

RL Reco
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

The four main points (cardinal directions) of the compass were

derived from the wind rose: North, East, South, and West. This is
also where the four half points originated (ordinal directions).
Later, more points were developed to gain more precise bearings,
until finally 32 points in total were used. Reciting all 32 points of
the compass is called "boxing the compass".

Red, blue, black, and green were the most common colors used in
the compass rose. For the times, these colors were the easiest to
distinguish in low light situations when using oil lamps.

Naming all 32 points on the rose is called boxing the compass.

Boxing the compass is the action of naming all thirty-two principal


points of the compass in clockwise order. Such names, formed by
the initials of the cardinal directions and their intermediate ordinal
directions, are accepted internationally, even though they have
their origin in the English language, and are very handy to refer to a heading (or course or azimuth) in a general fashion,
without having to resort to computing or recalling degrees.

You might also like