Using your analog watch how do you find north?

Question

I think you point the hour hand toward the sun and then..What?

Answer 1

Yes. in the southern hemisphere, you point the 12 at the sun, and north is midway between the 12 and the hour. It works because the sun is due north at midday (plus or minus an hour; because of the difference between the easternmost and westernmost edge of each time zone).

Thr bigger the watch face, the more accurate.

Actually, you don't even need a watch; you only need to know what time it is. Then you can use your body, by thinking that straight ahead is 12, and if you stretched your left arm out horizontally, it would represent 3 pm; to your right 9am, and so on. Of course, at midday, if you faced the sun you would be facing north.

At sunrise and sunset, the sun is near the east or west respectively, but there will be a seasonal variation up to 23 degrees, as the earth rotates about the sun. Near the equator, the sun will always set near the west.

The watch technique is not all that accurate (especially in the tropics, when the sun is closer to overhead, and the angles are hard to estimate), but it will be good enough to get you out of trouble (ie, by preventing you walking totally in the wrong direction).

Answer 2

If you point the hour hand at the sun, then halfway between the hour hand and the 12 is south - if you have something you can line up with it like a twig or something, you can point north or south.

PS This is for the northern hemisphere. I think the reverse would be true south of the equator.

Answer 3

The only thing that I can think of = use the watch to tell you when noon is - in the northern hemisphere, your shadow now points north.