When they first went to the poles how did they know they had the exact point?

Question

No sat nav then and sighting the sun would not be accurate enough to give the exact position, a compas won't work as well as this points to magnetic north etc

READ MY QUESTION! I said geograhic pole not magnetic pole. A compus won't give right result at gepgraphic pole

Answer 1

With a sextant and chronometer you can determine your exact position from the sun without recourse to magnetic compasses (which wouldn't work). You can measure the angular elevation of the sun, you know the precise time, so you know where you are. By the time you near the poles, it actually gets easier as longitude no longer matters, and latitude has been measurable for centuries.

Also, a gyro compass would work; aligned with the celestial pole, it would point vertically at either of the poles.

Answer 2

A compass would not be very useful.
The stars sounds good but travel near the poles at night would be rather difficult and dangerous.
The sun would be the best way. During the summer at one or other of the poles, the sun travels around the horizon in a circle.
If you are exactly at the pole, the angle from the horizontal to the sun will be constant at all times of day. Very simply, if the angle is not constant, walk towards where the sun is lowest and you are walking towards the pole.

Answer 3

That's right. The first guys to reach the North Pole only really reached the North "magnetic" Pole. Their memoirs describe them merely following the compass needle beyond the point it became useless to where it began to point the other way. At first they didn't realise that True North and "Magnetic" North were different things.

Answer 4

Hmm... Since compasses can be confused, as you said, by magnetic north, perhaps the sun would have provided the correct position. In the absence of the sun, then the stars would have provided fairly accurate coordinates.

Geographic north (the one you are looking for, I assume) has a latitude that is defined as 90 degrees north.

Answer 5

A Dip Needle Compass has a needle that rotates downward not sideways as with a conventional compass. The Dip Needle must be manually aligned so that it's on a magnetic north/south line. The needle will tilt diagonally, depending on how close you are to the magnetic pole. When you are right over the pole, the Dip Needle will point straight down.

Answer 6

The georaphic north pole technically shifts from moment to moment as the orbit of the earth is slightly influenced by the action of other objects in space and thus alters constantly by tiny amounts.

Answer 7

they didnt. there are actually two north poles - magnetic north and true north. when reaching the poles, they were searching for true north/true south, but were a few feet off.

when nearing magnetic north, the dial on the compas would spin about maddly.

Answer 8

compass. The neddle would spin on the pole.

Likewise, south of the equator, where the magnetic pole is the southern one, compasses point south.

Answer 9

Paul FB has the only correct answer. All the rest are just plain stupid.

Answer 10

The compass spins around and points no where