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​​4.2 G) Bearings – Part 1
Bearings and compasses are used to give directions. There are four different main directions on a compass; north, south, east and west. 
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​Ships use bearings for navigation. There are a few different rules that we need to remember when we are working with bearings. These rules are:
  • They are measured from the North line
  • They are measured in a clockwise direction
  • They are measured in degrees and we always give them as 3 digits
 
The bearing of east, south and west are shown below.
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​Let’s have a few examples. 

Finding Bearings 
The first step in finding a bearing is to draw in a north line if there is not already a north line. If the bearing is less that 180°, we then measure the bearing clockwise from the north line (example 1). If the bearing is greater than 180°, we measure the angle anticlockwise and take the angle that we have measured off of 360° to give us the bearing (example 2).

Example 1 
What is the bearing of B from A? The north line has been drawn for you. Click here for a printable version. 
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The word “from” in bearings is really useful as it tells us where we are measuring the bearing from. For this question, we are measuring the bearing from A. I have used an arrow to show what we are measuring on the diagram below. 
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The bearing in the diagram below is less than 180°. Therefore, we are going to measure the angle that is between the north line and the bearing. 
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This angle is 40°. Therefore, the bearing is 040° (remember, we always need to give bearings as a 3-digit number, so we need to add a 0 at the front).

Example 2 
What is the bearing of D from C? The north line has been drawn for you. 
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The bearing below is greater than 180°. Therefore, we are going to measure the angle between the north line and the bearing in an anticlockwise direction and then take this angle away from 360°. 
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The angle between the north line and the bearing is 120°. We take this off of 360°. The working is shown below:
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​The bearing of D from C is 240°. 

Drawing the Bearing 
Usually with a bearing question, you will be given the north line. However, if you are not given the north line, the first step will be to draw in a north line, which is a vertical line. The drawing of the bearing depends on whether the bearing is greater or less than 180°. If the bearing is less than 180°, we measure clockwise as normal (example 3). If the bearing is greater than 180°, we take the bearing away from 360° and measure this angle anticlockwise (example 4). 

​Example 3 
The bearing of F from E is 135°. Draw this bearing.
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The north line has already been drawn for us. The angle for this bearing is 135°, which is less than 180°. Therefore, we measure the bearing in a clockwise direction. To measure out the angle, we place the centre of the protractor at E (the bottom of the north line) and measure 135° using the scale that starts from 0 at the north line. The working is shown below:
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The final step is to draw a line from E to the mark that we have just made. The bearing is shown below:
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Example 4
The bearing of H from G is 310°. Draw this bearing.
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The north line has not been drawn for the question above. Therefore, the first step in answering this question is to draw in the north line, which is a vertical line. 
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We are drawing the bearing of 310°, which is greater than 180°. Therefore, we take the bearing off of 360°. 
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We now measure 50° from the north line in an anticlockwise direction. The working is shown below:
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The final step is to draw a line from G to the mark that we have just made. The bearing is shown below:
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