Talk:Bearing (navigation)

how do you use a bearing

 * I'm not expert, but do the bearing tells you the direction to another point. If you get the bearing to another location and start in that direction and keep going straight, that will be the closest way to that point, traveling over the surface of the Earth (on a great circle).  Bubba73 23:11, July 30, 2005 (UTC)


 * I've added an external link to a free program to calculate the distance and bearing of two points on the Earth. Bubba73 00:42, August 2, 2005 (UTC)
 * ACK, w.

Serious errors in article
There is confusioin about three different kinds of reference directions, which are true north (reference of charts! and Gyros, magnetic north which depends on local (temporary changing) Magnetic variation, and compass north, which furthermore may be influenced by ship's own magnetic field. In a chart, only true bearings or true courses can be used, therefore, any compass reading has to be corrected first for Magnetic deviation (the error added by ship's magnetism), and second for variation, before being of use for navigation.

Give me c. one week to have a diagram explaining those relations. w. any IP. 07:25, 27 February 2007 (UTC)
 * oops - being late;) on "reference directions," see course (navigation) meanwhile. any IP. 13:24, 20 March 2007 (UTC)


 * I tried to fix the wording of the definition of magnetic bearing, stressing that "magnetic north" is not the same as "direction towards the north magnetic pole", because magnetic anomalies ruin the idealistic model of straight magnetic field lines in many places on Earth. Hence, no instrument can show the real direction towards a magnetic pole. Igusarov (talk) 13:40, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

---I definitely agree on this. Bearing is the actual compass direction of the forward motion of the aircraft. It is affected by local magnetic variation and the carrier's own magnetic field. It has NOT AT ALL anything to do with reference of true north. --Natasha2006 17:56, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

- North is a direction, not a plane: "A true bearing is measured in relation to the fixed horizontal reference plane of true north..." Kortoso (talk) 21:24, 14 November 2013 (UTC)

They way I understand it, at least for aircraft...
Bearing is compass direction (magnetic or true) to a reference object, be it moving or stationary. Heading is the direction the aircraft is pointed. Track is the actual direction of travel after wind drift correction. Course is the intended (but not necessarily the actual) track.

Without a (second) reference point, bearing is meaningless. —Preceding unsigned comment added by BillMichaelson (talk • contribs) 15:31, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

US Army definition of Bearing needs correction
The first reference ray is always North or South, not North, South, East or West. The second example has the directions reversed - it should be S30E not E30S. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TRS80Math (talk • contribs) 11:38, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

Does "con" have any bearing on this?
Sorry for the lame pun. I'm trying to understand the difference between "bearing" and "con". The bearing comes from the navigator, while the con comes from the conning tower...is that it, or are there more details? ```` — Preceding unsigned comment added by PickMyName (talk • contribs) 20:00, 11 March 2012 (UTC)

Pronunciation
How do sailors pronounce "bearing"? I've heard some foreign sailors pronounce it like "beering"--is that nautical slang, or was it just a foreigners' mistake? Thanks, Ibn Battuta (talk) 16:42, 18 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I think it is said "bareing", although in many accents or dialects like you may have heard, it is possible it has been pronounced differently throughout them.  Rcsprinter  (lecture)  @ 16:22, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

Possibly the worst article on Wikipedia !
This article is basically utterly incorrect, in every broad concept and detail, from top to bottom.

People who are not mathematicians, completely skilled in Vector3 math, and who are not active professional navigators, should not even try to edit this page.

The current page is astoundingly bad. I am not going to try to correct it, but just ease some of the bloopers. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.148.179.249 (talk) 10:53, 24 October 2012 (UTC)

another small error

 * 360° ÷ 32 = 11.25°, so 32 points of 11.25° is 360°. I.e. it does not require any special knowledge it’s just arithmetic.-- JohnBlackburne wordsdeeds 22:03, 23 March 2016 (UTC)

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Missing Illustration
The very first illustration -- at the very top of the article -- is missing. The caption for it is there, but the illustration itself is not. The Grand Rascal (talk) 12:23, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Thumbnail generation fault. I've slightly changed the resolution so it is generated. (Hohum @ ) 16:12, 14 August 2019 (UTC)