Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2020 September 12

= September 12 =

64-point compass
Read the whole of the Points of the compass article. It talks about advanced points; the 16-point compass uses names like "west-southwest", but those new to the 32-point compass are not named like that; their names are like "north by northwest".

Has anyone ever proposed a naming scheme for a 64-point compass?? The article itself says nothing about a 64-point compass. Georgia guy (talk) 00:18, 12 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Reading between the lines (no pun intended), it looks as though the extension went straight from 32, where "Northwest by north" implicitly means "one point north of northwest" ("North by northwest" was used as a film title, but is otherwise meaningless), to 128 (as detailed in Points of the compass): using only the half-points would give 64 points, but there may have been no stage where half points had become useful but quarter points were beyond available precision. Can any salty dogs enlighten us further? {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.2.158 (talk) 07:22, 12 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Wading through several articles and rereading the Wikipedia article, it seems that to describe the point between say, east southeast and southeast by south, you would say "east southeast and ½ south". Using these half points gives a 64 point compass. Using quarter points as well gives 128 points. Alansplodge (talk) 14:02, 13 September 2020 (UTC)