Ways to Find North?

Question

What are different ways to find north without a compass... i also heard you can find north with the arms of your watch, is that true?...

Answer 1

You can use an analog watch (one with hands) to find north.
If you are in the Northern hemisphere, hold the watch horizontal and point the hour hand at the sun.
Halfway between the hour hand and the 12 o'clock mark is the north-south line.
If there is any doubt as to which end of the line is north, remember that the sun rises in the east, sets in the west, and is due south at noon.

At night if you can see the stars, locate the Big Dipper - the end of the "bowl" points to Polaris (the North Star).

Moss often grows all around trees, so that won't work all that well to find north.
But in the northern hemisphere, north-facing slopes receive less sun than south-facing slopes and are therefore cooler and damper. In the summer, north-facing slopes may retain patches of snow. In the winter, the trees and open areas on south-facing slopes are the first to lose their snow, and ground snow pack is shallower.

Answer 2

A small addition to "hybrid7wolf5"s answer:
In the southern hemisphere we do not have anything in the night sky as convenient as Polaris aka the Pole star or North star. Here we have to use the Southern Cross which is a fairly easily recognizable feature shaped like a cross, with one long axis. The long axis points towards the south celestial pole, which lies about 4.5 lengths of this long axis away from the "bottom" of the cross. South is the point on the horizon directly below this south celestial pole.

Oh, and moss do not grow on the north side of trees here, either right around the tree, or not at all, or in a very few cases on the southern side.

What you also have to remember when using the rising/setting sun is that the north/south line actually lies midway between where the sun rises and where it sets. The sun does not always rise directly east or sets directly west, but may actually rise/set quite far south of east/west depending on your exact latitude (in the Northern Hemisphere) and the time of year.

Answer 3

At night, you can do it the same way that the Phoenicians did it three thousand years ago. They were the master mariners of the ancient Mediterranean, and nobody else could work out how they knew their way over the sea at night when out of the sight of land. Here's how they did it.

Get a star map and learn to recognise the twelve constellations of the Zodiac, which form a huge ring in the sky. Only half of the ring is visible on any particular night, but if you can see and recognise enough of it to decide how it lies in the sky, it cuts the horizon at EXACTLY the points where the Sun sets and rises. Of course, halfway between these is North and South.

This is much better than trying to find the Pole Star, which might be covered by clouds, and is not a particularly prominent or recognisable star anyway.

Answer 4

well when facing north west is on your left so any time after 12 noon you know that the sun is in the west and so if its on your left side your facing north .
if you are in the southern part of Ontario or the southern water shed then you know that the water in the rivers is flowing south to the great lakes . so the opposite direction is north .
at night you can look up at the stars and see the big dipper now draw a line from the big dipper to the next bright star and that is the north star . see that and your going north .

Answer 5

I saw the survivalist dude (who's followed around by a camera crew-wow) he says if you stick a stick in the ground and place a rock where the shadow ends, then wait 15 min. and put a rock where the shadow is then. Draw a line from the first rock to the second rock and that's an arrow pointing north.
Personally I would look for the rising or setting skies and use that, or at mid day, look for north moss, or at night I'd look for the lightest part of the sky and depending on if it late orearly... or wait and look for the sun. The big dipper thing doesnt work if its cloudy or foggy.

Answer 6

It's simple enough. Get a straight stick and stick it into the ground pointing at the sun so it doesn't cast a shadow. Check it in half an hour. The shadow will be pointing more or less east. North is ninety degrees to the left.

In a forest moss grows more thickly on the north side of trees because of the absence of light so you can also tell that way.

Answer 7

The arms of a watch are constrained to move by gears. Unless you remove the gears, the watch arms cannot swing freely. Additionally, you have to magnetize the arm of the watch before it will align itself with the Earth's magnetic field. Only magnetized objects will do this. If the watch arm is made out of iron, nickel, or cobalt, you can magnetize it by stroking it with a permanent magnet. There are no other common materials that can be magnetized in this way.

If you want to find north without a compass, you can memorize the night sky and look for Polaris, the North Star. Unless you're already near the north pole, heading in the direction of Polaris means you're heading north.

Answer 8

look at the direction and position of the sun, based on the time of day. the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. for example, if it's 5 pm and the sun is off to your right that would be west. You would then know that you are facing south and therefore north would be behind you.

Answer 9

The sun rises in the East and Sets in the West...

Find Polaris at night (the big dipper points to it)

Moss always grows on the south side of trees first... Yes... you can find it all around some trees, but some trees it's only on one side... this is usually south...

Rub a needle on silk and float it on a leaf in a bowl of water... It will align itself with magnetic north.

Answer 10

The north star (polaris) and if you live in the southeren hemisphere, then oppisite of the south star (whatever it's name is) You could also look at the way the sun is moving, beause it rises in the east and sets in the west. If it is past noon, then you look which direction the sun is moving, and head, if you are looking directly at it, head to your right. and the opposite for before noon.
Works the same way with the moon.