• WereCat@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    edit-2
    10 days ago

    It’s easy. When you imagine south as a north being on the top then west is on the east side from it.

  • Reyali@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    10 days ago

    At one point in my childhood, my dad made the comment, “Women don’t know compass directions.” I took offense to that and made a point to learn them to prove him wrong.

    I felt vindicated in high school when he was coming to pick me up from a friend’s house and said, “I’m at the gas station. Do I go left or right?” I told him there were several gas stations on the way, and asked which direction he was facing to figure out which one he was by. He couldn’t tell me and finally hung up on me in a huff.

  • AA5B@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    11 days ago

    Worst case scenario, download a compass app for your phone, but watch out for scams that will require heavy network traffic

    iPhone/appleWatch may have one already, but I don’t know about android

      • potpotato@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        10 days ago

        No data, no map.

        GPS can give your coordinates, but that’s pointless unless you walk a bit and translate the direction.

        Compass uses most of its power for the screen.

        • superkret@feddit.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          10 days ago

          Do you have a minute to talk about Openstreetmap? You can download the map before you head out, then navigate without data connection.

          • Omgpwnies@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            10 days ago

            google also allows offline caching, but also needs to be set up ahead of time. AFAIK once you set a region to download, it will update that cache regularly.

            I would expect this is a feature that most map apps would offer

            • superkret@feddit.org
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              10 days ago

              I just use the app for navigation so I always download the map for the area I travel to before I go.

              • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                0
                ·
                10 days ago

                I used to do the same when i was too poor to afford data on my phone or when i go through areas with poor service.

    • Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      10 days ago

      Quick shoutout for Trail Sense for Android. Designed to function offline, lots of cool navigation/basic tools I haven’t used outside of the GPS and compass, reasonable permissions, etc. One of those “You don’t know how useful it is until you don’t have connectivity” things.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        edit-2
        9 days ago

        Excellent! I tried a couple trail apps for iPhone without any luck - they didn’t have local trails or cost too much for how occasionally I’d use it. Lately I have been doing short local hikes on well marked trails, so it’s not really a need

  • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    9 days ago

    One time I called 911 because I was following a drunk driver that had collided with multiple vehicles and kept driving. The operator asked me what direction so I looked at my maps app and it said I was going west so I told them west and they said “Sir that street doesn’t run west.” I was speechless after that.

    • Emerald@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      9 days ago

      So you might’ve been going west, but not westbound. Roads curve often in the USA (i’m guessing you are from the USA because 911)

  • superkret@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    edit-2
    11 days ago

    When you’re lost, walk downhill, or downstream, until you reach the sea, or a McDonalds.

    • Agent641@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      11 days ago

      If you reach an Arby’s, you’ve gone the wrong way, crawl back into the wilderness, it’s safer there.

  • RogueBanana@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    10 days ago

    Or just ask them which is west and they can point you towards it? Your not a compass needle lol, what is that assumption.

  • iamnotme@feddit.uk
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    11 days ago

    What have the pop band from the 80s got to do with the direction? Is there some code in their lyrics that will point her the right way?

  • bluewing@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    10 days ago

    What? You don’t have an internal compass that keeps you oriented? For some reason I seem to be a lucky person that just knows which compass direction I’m going no matter where I am. And it’s a very weird and frightening feeling if I do get disoriented. I had some pain meds after a surgery that did that to me. Flushed them damn things down the toilet after the first 2 I took.

    • ATDA@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      10 days ago

      I’m with you. Short of that one day dead noon Hawaii or the middle of a forest I feel like there are clues to approximate North and South even when I’m discombobulated.

    • gnu@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      9 days ago

      And it’s a very weird and frightening feeling if I do get disoriented.

      I know what you mean, there has been a couple of times in my life where my internal idea of direction has been turned off course and it is a very weird feeling indeed trying to reconcile the direction you internally believe you’re facing against the different direction a map or compass is telling you is actually true.

      As a kid I also once spent a weekend in Melbourne feeling somewhat disconcerted due to not being . I’d never been there before and flew in on an overcast day which never ended up letting up until I flew out so never ended up getting my bearings while we were down there (didn’t help that this was before the smartphone era so maps weren’t available at the drop of a hat).

  • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    edit-2
    10 days ago

    The Sun rises in the East and sets in the west.

    With East on your right and west on your left you would be facing north.

    You can tell which side of the equator you are on by the way water swirls. Northern Hemisphere water drains clockwise. If water draining has no spin then you’re on the equator.

    Sometimes the moss on trees is enough of an indicator, as moss growing on only one side of a tree means no sunlight reaches it and the moss faces the direction opposite of the equator.

    Join us next time for a lesson on Star Charts.