Compasses going crazy...Theories and Research

reply to post by nenothtu



Nenothtu: Thanks for your reply and very happy to hear that your compass is reading accurately. My compass isn't WAY off or at least as off as some of the others have noticed on their compasses. My is just a deviation of about 15 degrees towards the east, so not huge or anything but enough to catch my eye. We had a couple of other posters from western NC around the Asheville area say there's was off by 15 degrees to the east as well and then one in eastern NC that said theirs was still reading accurately. I live in the country but will admit I live only 8 miles from Fort Bragg, about 5 miles from Pope AFB, and about 2 miles from a military artillery range and in the direct flight path of Pope AFB so possibly some kind of interference coming from one of those or a combination messing with my compass? I have no idea. In the whole scheme of it all, I don't think it is in anyway a cataclysmic sign of things to come, but just very interesting. My new neighbor is SF so I am hoping to catch him in the next couple of days to see if he has noticed anything recently while out training.

reply to post by Phage
A Compass does Not tell True North at alllll . It tells where Magnetic North is.

I Have To Keep Posting This Every Page Now,,,,, Please Learn the Difference between True North and Magnetic North then you will know What The Thread is About!!!

QUOTE: from Link


Magnetic north is so flexible, because it comes from the iron based molten core, which is magnetic. True north doesn’t have this flexibility, because it is an actual pinpointed place on land. It is actually the place determined to be the ‘top’ of the world. As you can imagine, there have been many scientific disputes over the centuries to determine the actual placement of the North Pole.



Read more: Difference Between True North and Magnetic North | Difference Between | True North vs Magnetic North www.differencebetween.net...



True north is what is used when creating new maps. However, a new map will also have the necessary declination information printed on them for easy reference. This way, the hiker or sailor knows how far off their destination might be, and how they can adjust their course for better destination accuracy.



Read more: Difference Between True North and Magnetic North | Difference Between | True North vs Magnetic North www.differencebetween.net...

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by coolottie

 

Without knowing where true north is you cannot tell if your compass reading is "funny".

True North changed 4,400 years ago? Really?

You can´t? It seems pretty simple. If the compass doesn´t point North it same direction you know it used to point, you would know if your reading was funny.

reply to post by Saintor

In 2010 there were 1,707 accidents and incidents in the US, an average of about 5 a day.

Here's an interesting week:
06/19/2010 10
06/20/2010 5
06/21/2010 9
06/22/2010 1
06/23/2010 7
06/24/2010 5
06/25/2010 10
06/26/2010 10

www3.ntsb.gov...

reply to post by UrgentInsurgent


How do you know wether or not the first reading you are basing the panicked OMG my compass is way off response from is correct, if you didn't verify your first reading? Just saying, I always knew about deviation, I map unmapped trails that I hike down for a hobby. Perhaps others didn't know about it and got a false reading last time they did a reading. It helps to know these things.

reply to post by TKDRL
My House was set with a Compass to North, Now 11 years later the Compass reads Northeast. My house has Not Moved and the Earth Has Not Moved, But the Magnetic North has Moved.

reply to post by coolottie


Yes you regurgitated this "information" aimed at my post a few pages ago yet my post had nothing to do with any sort of confusion, nor did someone pointing out that you cannot say your compass is 23 degrees off (or what have you) if you are not even aware of what it is "off" of. This leads me to believe you are not reading or understanding what other people are stating quite clearly, this is the point where further communication would become useless as you have the answers you need in your own mind, and you can't show the light to someone with their eyes already closed.

Peace out.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by Saintor

 

Not airplane crashes. Aircraft "incidents".
An incident is not necessarily a crash. You should check the details.

In Phage's defense: If one wheel goes off the edge of the runway for 2 seconds while landing, the pilot HAS to file an incident report with traffic control even if he corrected himself and avoided an accident. In theory, an incident could be related to compass error, even if there wasn't an accident.

In Saintors defense: If a Cessna runs over a toe of one of the runway flaggers, an incident report HAS to be filed as well.

Without more information about the accidents/incidents, we just can't tell. A pilot could have blamed it on something else because he didn't want the other pilots to laugh at him for not being able to read a compass. (All theoretical, of course. You have to consider ALL options and situations, but I agree that is a lot of accidents/incidents)

And since a lot of peoples competence in compass reading is apparently at question: 7 years Boy Scouts, 3 years Civil Air Patrol (Navigator for Search and Rescues) and 15 years of avid hunting/hiking in the hills of Tennessee. 'Nuff said.

reply to post by Gizmotn

A boater for um..my whole life here.
My compasses are pointing where they are supposed to.

reply to post by Liberterius
The problem is that you can't learn the difference between Magnetic North which the Thread is talking. You keep talking about True North, North Pole, North Star, Sun, Maps has nothing to do with Magnetic North.

quote from the articile Please Read:

Compasses are based on magnetic information, and therefore track the magnetic north. Not True North.

Read more: Difference Between True North and Magnetic North | Difference Between | True North vs Magnetic North www.differencebetween.net...

I am getting a few degrees East on my compass, I am from SE Michigan.
Ear pain and headache on Weds 16th March.

I agree that an incident can be classified as a minor problem, I use this map alot and have never seen them use this many airplane incidents, ever. There are other sites that track per country based disasters, where this one is global based, as I doubt they have the time to post every little problem some small airplane has.

Again time well tell.

And thank you Coolottie for trying to clarify the difference between true north and magnetic north there are obviously some who still dont get it ...

you are all aware that the magnetic poles are constantly moving?! always have done and always will. Airports regularly adjust markings, settings and runway designations based on the fact that this is a constant of our planet.

HOWEVER it is an extremely slow process... unless it flipped poles overnight you really have nothing to worry about. There's much more real and impending things going on in the world right now to be worrying about things like this

Sure stock up on tools, food flashlights, get laser eye surgery if you're blind like me, and maybe even load up on guns if you can get them... food prices soaring oil and petrol prices rocketing and war should be much more of a concern than 'continent destroying earthquakes' from a magnetic pole shift.

Research your FACTS people.

Not sure if anyone has put this out there, but what about the specific time that the readings were taken. As was pointed out, it could be earthquakes releasing "gravo-metric" waves of some type, or the earth is tilting more then we realize and this could be mapped to a specific time of day, not just location and current quakes in the area.

Do not just look at a few sets of variables, all variables must be considered or all you are really doing is New Fuzzy Math where 2+2=banana.

Star and Flag to the people above who understand what True North is verus Magnetic North.

For those who don't understand that you **can** verify magnetic shift based on True North and current maps only need to review the following:

I am a military officer from Ft. Jackson, South Carolina, where we conduct basic training and teach soldiers the use of the compass through "orienteering." Basic to this skill is understanding that our United States maps are gridded on True North, which is different than Magnetic North. Part of the basic and advanced training is computing True North (Map North) from the compass reading, which is Magnetic North. In short, you take a compass reading, and take a look at the map, which shows the variation between True and Magnetic North. For example, all U.S. military maps have a degree of variation stated right on the map itself. For example, on some we use regularly at Ft. Jackson, it shows that the True North is 9 degrees different than Magnetic North.

Now, we haven't changed out maps in 15 years for training. We use them weekly to get from point "A" to point "B" by computing and converting Magnetic to True North. All you do is look at the map, see the 9 degree variation, take a compass reading, adjust 9 degrees, and plot your course through the woods.

We physically have our soldiers traipse through the woods for miles to find things as small as a basketball hoop hanging from a tree, all based on their computation and conversion from Magnetic North to True North. When they get to the basketball hoop, it has a paper punch hanging from it. They must punch their destination and then plot a new course from Point B to Point C.....and so on.....

Now, I read the above, and there seems to be confusion.

Let me say this: Any shift in Magnetic North would mean our computations for going from Point A to Point B would be way off. Even a **slight** change in Magnetic North would mean our soldiers would be off of their True North bearings, and thus, their maps, when it came time to find their specific points in the woods. An error or change in Magnetic North more than just 1% would mean that they could not find their destination. Try seeing a camoflauged basketball hoop hanging from a tree more than 200 yards away...2 football fields to see something that is difficult to see unless you are underneath or within 5-10 feet. And yes, some of our points are that far away, and that hard to find.

In Columbia, South Carolina, Magnetic North and true North are identical to what they have been for the pat 15 years, givce or take 1 degree. I know this because even a slight shift would result in our soldiers ending up lost in the woods, and not finding their paper punches.

Respectfully,

Kyre

reply to post by coolottie


I think Phage is just trying to clear up if you are measuring your magnetic deviation AGAINST 'old' magnetic north or true north. If you are going off of the fact that your house was built facing north, then you must take into consideration what method the surveyor who marked the plot used to determine north (I do not know if surveyors use mag, true or grid north).

Even though it is obvious people are seeing they're compasses deviate quite a bit from previous readings, determining and tracking the magnetic deviation relative to true north is going to provide valuable data.

reply to post by crezo


I'm sure all of us know that the poles move naturally by know, the information has even been linked in this huge thread before, which I assume not everybody has taken the time to read.

Earth's Inconstant Magnetic Field

When the pole is reversing several other localized north and south poles are created. What we are looking at here is evidence that the shift is increasing in speed as local anomalies are appearing more regularly.

reply to post by JizzyMcButter


JizzyMcButter,

Just wanted to say, your name is very creative.

Also, good job on ur contributions to this thread.

reply to post by coolottie


I respectfully agree with everything you have posted and believe you are right in your statements. We are on the same page (I think) aside from what I am missing is that namely: I don't see my confusion about true north vs. magnetic north, and it seems to me you keep pointing this out to posters who clearly by reading their posts from my point of view, are not confused on this matter. That's all, I don't see how Doc Holliday pointing out a very useful means known by educated people for hundreds if not thousands of years of how to determine true north AS A BASIS of determining how far off your observed readings are vs. the declination maps predictions implies we are not "getting" the difference between what clearly many other posters are confused about.

You keep correcting the few it seems, that actually aren't confused, which makes me suspect about your opinions or motivations.

I'm sure all of us know that the poles move naturally by know, the information has even been linked in this huge thread before, which I assume not everybody has taken the time to read.

I concur Jizz, but you are assuming that all of these initial (and henceforth) measurements are "accurate" in their inaccuracy, I do not believe that is the case. And if the point being "understanding" of this thread and whether it holds any water than I suggest you read earlier pages where there is in all cases more than one skeptical or alternate reason to disavow all of the so called "anomaly" measurements. That is all.

Oh, and WTF.. If you think a polar bear having a freaking stroke in Germany has anything to do with this, then you are already truly lost.

reply to post by Ashaman Kyre


I agree,if it was off as much some people on here are claiming,they would end up in
Lexington County,or 5 points or Two Notch Rd!