What Are Bearings?
Imagine you're a pilot flying over the ocean with no landmarks in sight, or a sailor navigating through fog. How do you describe exactly which direction to travel? Saying "go that way" doesn't help much! This is where bearings come in — they give us a precise, mathematical way to describe direction.
A bearing is an angle measured clockwise from north that describes the direction of one point from another. Bearings are always written as three figures (e.g., , , ).
Bearings are used in navigation, geography, orienteering, search-and-rescue operations, and even in military contexts. They remove all ambiguity from directional instructions.
Think of bearings like the hands of a clock. You always start at 12 o'clock (north) and sweep clockwise around the dial. A bearing of means you've swept a quarter turn clockwise — that's due east. A bearing of is due south (half a turn), and is due west (three-quarter turn).
The Three Rules of Bearings
Every time you work with bearings, you must follow three golden rules:
- Always measure from North — draw a north line at the point you are measuring from.
- Always measure clockwise — even if the angle seems to go the "wrong way," bearings are always measured in the clockwise direction.
- Always give three figures — if the angle is less than , you pad it with a leading zero. For example, is written as , and is written as .
A very common mistake is measuring anticlockwise instead of clockwise, or forgetting to write three figures. The bearing of east is , not . Always check you've followed all three rules!
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