A modern compass card.

Boxing the compass is the action of naming all thirty-two principal points of the compass in clockwise order. Such names, formed by the initials of the cardinal directions and their intermediate ordinal directions, are accepted internationally, even though they have their origin in the English language, and are very handy to refer to a heading (or a course) in a general or colloquial fashion, without having to resort to computing or recalling angle numbers. Image File history File links Compass_Card. ... Image File history File links Compass_Card. ... For the tool used to draw circles, see Compass (drafting). ... A clockwise motion is one that proceeds like the clocks hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back to the top. ... Alternative meaning: Initial (linguistics) Detail from a rare Blackletter Bible (1497) printed in Strassburg by J.R.Grueninger. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Ordinal directions are the four compass directions: northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest, located halfway between the cardinal directions. ... A heading is used to provide hierarchical information about other information. ... A course, in navigation, is the direction of travel. ... A colloquialism is an expression not used in formal speech or writing. ...

[edit] Compass points

A historic compass card.

Tramontane In Italy Tramontane is a wind that blows from the Alps and Apennines (South of the Alps) to the Italian coast. ... Bora, also known as Bura (in Croatian) or Burja (in Slovenian) is a northern to north-eastern katabatic wind in the Adriatic, Greece and Turkey. ... Viento de Levante or the Levanter - an easterly wind that blows in the Western Mediterranean, an example of mountain-gap wind. ... Sirocco, scirocco, jugo or, rarely, siroc is a strong southerly to southeasterly wind in the Mediterranean that originates from the Sahara and similar North African regions. ... Ostro is an ostrich you can ride in Super Mario Bros. ... The libeccio is the westerly or south-westerly wind which predominates in northern Corsica all the year round; it frequently raises high seas and may give violent westerly squalls. ... A north-westerly wind which blows in summer in the Adriatic when pressure is low over the Balkan peninsula. ... A mariners compass © Public Domain Davis, John. ... A mariners compass © Public Domain Davis, John. ...

[edit] See also

• Compass
• Heading (disambiguation)
• Course (navigation)
• Bearing (navigation)
• Navigation
• Cardinal direction
• Ordinal directions
• Compass rose
• Rose of the Winds

For the tool used to draw circles, see Compass (drafting). ... A heading is used to provide hierarchical information about other information. ... A course, in navigation, is the direction of travel. ... In navigation, a bearing is the clockwise angle between a reference direction (or a datum line) and the direction to an object. ... Table of geography, hydrography, and navigation, from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Ordinal directions are the four compass directions: northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest, located halfway between the cardinal directions. ... A compass rose or wind rose, is a figure displaying the orientation of the cardinal directions, north, south, east and west on a map or nautical chart. ... A common compass rose as is found on a nautical chart showing both true and magnetic north with magnetic declination A compass rose or wind rose, is a figure displaying the orientation of the cardinal directions, north, south, east and west on a map or nautical chart. ...

[edit] External links

• Wind Rose – discusses the origins of the names for compass directions.
• The Rose of the Winds – gives an example of a rose with 26 directions.