What is a compass point?

Answer 1

A compass point is an angular measure equal to 11.25 degrees. There are 32 compass points in the complete circle.

Working clockwise around the compass, the names of the compass points (in English) are:

North
North by east
North northeast
Northeast by north
Northeast
Northeast by east
East northeast
East by north
East
East by south
East southeast
Southeast by east
Southeast
Southeast by south
South southeast
South by east
South
South by west
South southwest
Southwest by south
Southwest
Southwest by west
West southwest
West by south
West
West by north
West northwest
Northwest by west
Northwest
Northwest by north
North northwest
North by west
(and back to North)

Note that, in spite of Alfred Hitchcock's movie, there is NO "North by Northwest"!

Answer 2

the pointed tip on a compass neddle is negatively charged and it points to magnetic north in canada. this is different than true north which is the north pole. so if the point is on east , that's 90deg right of magnetic notrh. on a map in the legend, there's a graph that shows the difference in angle between the two. if you were at the north pole , a compass would point south to the magnetic north pole

Answer 3

A compass point refers to the directions of North, East, South and West when you are talking about the "4 points of the Compass".
When you are talking of "eight points of the compass", you add the intervening directions of Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and Northwest.
When you are talking about the "sixteen point of the compass" you add: North-Northeast, East-Northeast, East-Southeast, South-Southeast (et cettera) which are the in-between directions.
When you are talking of "thirty-two points of the compass" you add: North by East, North-Northeast by East, East-Northeast by North, East-Northeast by East (et cettera) which represent the smallest divisions of the Compass Star.

Answer 4

the direction what points the needle on a compass