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A modern military compass, with included sight device for aligning. A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with magnetic north.
He created a compass in which the needle was floated in a goblet of water, attached to a cork to make it neutrally buoyant. The needle could orient itself in any direction, so it dipped to align itself with the Earth's field. Norman also created a dip circle, a compass needle pivoted about a horizontal axis, to measure the effect. [4] [8]
He then uses the compass to determine the north point, the meridian (khaṭṭ niṣf al-nahār), and the Qibla. This is the first mention of a compass in a medieval Islamic scientific text and its earliest known use as a Qibla indicator, although al-Ashraf did not claim to be the first to use it for this purpose. [6] [67]
Date: Person: Contribution: 1088: Shen Kuo: First person to write of the magnetic needle compass and that it improved the accuracy of navigation by helping to employ the astronomical concept of True North at all times of the day, thus making the first, recorded, scientific observation of the magnetic field (as opposed to a theory grounded in superstition or mysticism).
A beam compass and a regular compass Using a compass A compass with an extension accessory for larger circles A bow compass capable of drawing the smallest possible circles. A compass, also commonly known as a pair of compasses, is a technical drawing instrument that can be used for inscribing circles or arcs.
Floating-card compass with prismatic sight (bearing 220° through eyepiece). The marine hand compass, or hand bearing compass|hand-bearing compass as it is termed in nautical use, has been used by small-boat or inshore sailors since at least the 1920s to keep a running course or to record precise bearings to landmarks on shore in order to determine position via the resection technique.
1187 – Alexander Neckham is first in Europe to describe the magnetic compass and its use in navigation. 1269 – Pierre de Maricourt describes magnetic poles and remarks on the nonexistence of isolated magnetic poles; 1282 – Al-Ashraf Umar II discusses the properties of magnets and dry compasses in relation to finding qibla. [7]
The modern concept of molecules can be traced back towards pre-scientific and Greek philosophers such as Leucippus and Democritus who argued that all the universe is composed of atoms and voids. Circa 450 BC Empedocles imagined fundamental elements ( fire ( ), earth ( ), air ( ), and water ( )) and "forces" of attraction and repulsion allowing ...