Find north using a homemade compass. Making a homemade compass for survival in an extreme situation, homemade compass from a needle, pin and razor

It so happens that you need to know exactly which side is south and which is north. At home, this can be useful when tuning the antenna, and for travelers without such knowledge, especially in conditions wildlife, not to be dispensed with at all. Of course, the easiest way is to use a regular compass. But what if he is not at hand? How to make a compass at home and outdoors? It turns out to be very simple. You don't need special devices- only the materials at hand that each house has, or they are easy to get in the forest.

How to make a compass at home

1. In order to make an irreplaceable attribute of a tourist, you need a needle, a small piece of foam rubber and a mug of water. To begin with, you should take foam rubber, about 3X3 centimeters. We will need it so that the needle stays on the water and does not sink. We pierce the foam rubber with a needle in the center and place simple design in a mug of water.

2. In order for it to become a real compass, it remains to magnetize one tip of the needle. Finding a magnet in an apartment is very easy. It is in the headset holding the doors or in the speaker of the music center. To demagnetize the needle, just bring one tip to gas burner and hold over the fire for 20 seconds. Thus, the magnetized tip of the needle will show us north, the demagnetized tip will tell us where the south is. We put our structure in the water again.

3. To understand where is north and where is south, stand with your face in the direction of the needle. Remember in which window the sun shines in the morning (this will be the east), respectively, the sun sets in the opposite direction - this is the west. Now stand along the needle so that east is on the left and west is on the right. This will put you facing south and back to the north.

Outdoors

Sometimes on a hike, for example, in the forest, it is important to know the exact direction of the path so as not to get lost. It turns out that it is also easy to understand where is north and where is south, using available means. Let's consider two options for how to create your own compass in extreme conditions.

1. For the first option, you need to find something metallic. Any nail, wire, or needle will do. To magnetize our arrow, it is enough to rub it on the hair. Next, the nails need to be tied to a thread or fishing line and hung on a static surface (for example, a tree branch). It is important that the length of the thread is at least 40 centimeters, otherwise the result will be inaccurate. The arrow will now point exactly to the north with its magnetized end. You already know how to determine the rest of the directions.

2. For the second option, you need a bowl of water. We magnetize one end of the arrow and put it in a bowl, laying it on a piece of bark. The arrow will tell you where north is.

So now you know how to make a compass in any situation. This procedure will not take much time even under the conditions modern apartment, even in a dense forest. It is enough to show a little ingenuity, to find suitable materials, create a simple device with your own hands, and you will always know exactly in which direction to move. Now you are not afraid of any troubles while traveling.

Sometimes on long trips there is an urgent need to correctly determine the cardinal points. It may even happen that the life and health of the members of the expedition will depend on this. If you have a compass, it doesn't matter. And if it is out of order or lost? Then the options are as follows: determine the cardinal points by the stars, the sun, signs, or make a primitive compass yourself. I just want to tell you how to make a compass yourself, using only available material... We will consider several variations of such homemade devices.

DIY compass from a needle and a container of water

We will need:

Glass or ceramic container with fresh water(metal ones will not work, as they will distort the magnetic field).
Needle
A piece of floating material (cork, polystyrene, foam rubber)

Assembling a homemade compass

Cut off a small piece of floating material. Most importantly, it should be sized to ensure the buoyancy of the needle attached to it, and at the same time that it should be sized so that the surface tension of the water and the drag forces are negligible - this is necessary to ensure accurate readings.

The needle will play the role of an arrow. First you need to make sure that one end of the needle is magnetized and the other is not. If you have magnets at hand (they are present in the speakers of the player, receiver, in electric motors, etc.), then you can magnetize the needle-arrow with their help. If there are no magnets, then you can simply hold one end of the needle over the flame for 25-35 seconds, after which this tip will be demagnetized (if you were interested in physics at school, then you understand why this is happening). So the arrow is ready. The magnetized end will be a pointer to Serer, and the non-magnetized end to the South.

We attach the needle-arrow to the float. It is most convenient to carefully pierce the float with a needle along the axis of symmetry. Such fastening is simple and reliable at the same time. It remains just to place the float with an arrow in a container with water in such a way that the walls of the container do not interfere with the rotation of the arrow. The compass is ready, it remains to calibrate it.

If you know which tip of your needle was magnetized and which is not, then you can immediately judge where the north is by the position of the magnetized tip. If you do not know, then the following facts will help you determine where the North and South are: the place where the sun rises and where it sets (Rise-East, Sunset-West) or the position of the pole star. Using these signs, you can easily calibrate your homemade compass.

DIY compass without using liquid

We need:

Safety razor needle or blade
Transparent bottle
Thin thread or fishing line

Assembling the structure

We make a compass needle and magnetize it, as described in the previous instructions. You can use a needle or a safety razor blade to make an arrow. You can also make an arrow from a half of a razor blade.

We tie a thread or fishing line to impromptu arrow at the center of her gravity. We place the arrow inside the transparent vessel so that it is suspended. The vessel will protect our structure from the wind.

We calibrate the resulting compass according to the method described in the last paragraph of the previous instruction and get the device ready to use.

As you can see, making a compass yourself is not that difficult. On the one hand, we looked at interesting solutions, and if you dig deeper, it becomes obvious that we have replenished our collection of knowledge extremely useful information! Happy travels, friends.

And still waiting for you interesting video from the net on our topic:

Which way is north? Show it now. If you can't, then use your compass to determine where north is. Do you have a compass? No? Don't worry - you can make a homemade compass with your own hands. In addition, you will learn how the compass works, and who knows how to determine the required direction of the cardinal points without any compass.

To design a homemade compass you will need:

Needle

Separate magnet with north and south poles

Bottle cap

Small bowl of water

Homemade compass is done as follows

1. Pass the North Pole along the needle, from ear to tip, at least ten, twenty times. This will magnetize the needle.

2. Cut a small piece from the end of the cork. About ten, twelve millimeters will be enough.

3. Draw the needle from the side of one circle to the other.

4. Fill a bowl with water (half will be enough). Dip the cork and needle into the water.

5. Place your homemade compass on a flat surface and watch what happens. The end will point north.

How a homemade compass works

attract, steel and other magnets. A magnet has south and north poles, and the north pole of one magnet and the south pole of another magnet are attracted to each other. rich in iron, therefore, the Earth is a magnet, with north and south poles. The Earth's magnetic field is not strong enough to completely pull all other magnets toward the south or north poles, but strong enough to turn them around.

Since the magnetized needle, stuck into the cork, floats on the water, it can freely rotate and unfold in accordance with magnetic poles Earth. This is the easiest homemade compass that can tell you where is north and where is south. If you put our homemade compass on a piece of cardboard, then after the needle points to the north, you can mark all cardinal directions on this cardboard. And then you will constantly know which side is north, south, west and east.

The South Pole is the only place on Earth where any direction points.

Who has their own internal compass?

They are oriented in space using the sun as a magnet. And bats contain a magnetic substance called magnetite in their bodies, which they use as an "internal compass" to help them navigate through space.

We will need:

Any container, except metal, filled with water (metal will not work, as they will distort the magnetic field).

In order to make a compass, we take a floating material and cut out a platform for a needle from it. The smaller the main parameters of the piece, the better, but the needle should not be above the surface of the water.

As you already understood, the needle acts as an arrow. In order for our homemade compass to be able to determine the cardinal points, one end of the needle must be magnetized. If you have magnets at hand (they are present in the speakers of the player, receiver, in electric motors, etc.), then you can magnetize the needle-arrow with their help. If there are no magnets, then you can simply hold one end of the needle over the flame for 25-35 seconds, after which this tip will be demagnetized. So the arrow is ready. The magnetized end will be a pointer to Serer, and the non-magnetized to the South.

We attach the needle-arrow to the float. It is most convenient to carefully pierce the float with a needle along the axis of symmetry (if the float is volumetric). This fastening is simple and reliable at the same time. Next, we place the float with a needle in a container with water so that they do not touch the walls of the vessel. The compass is ready with your own hands, it remains to calibrate it.

If you know which tip of your needle was magnetized and which is not, then you can immediately judge where the north is by the position of the magnetized tip. If you do not know, then the following facts will help you determine where the North and South are: the place where the sun rises and where it sets (Rise-East, Sunset West) or the position of the pole star. Using these signs, you can easily calibrate your homemade compass.

Sometimes, apart from a needle, there is no floating material at hand. In this case, to make a compass, you can rip off any piece of paper that can hold the needle above the water. Again, the smaller it is, the better.

I made a similar compass, but at home.

1). The sharp end of the sewing needle is rubbing against the magnet.

2). I pierced the wide cork from the bottle (maybe from the thermos) with a needle so that it came out from the sides, and not from the ends of the cork.

3). I lowered the cork with the needle into the container of water so that it did not touch the walls of the container.

In the forest, you can use a puddle of water.

The cork became a kind of float in the water and it turned out that sharp end the needles began to point north.

I also tried to do this without using water and a magnet.

1). The sharp end of the needle is rubbed against the artificial fabric from clothes that have static.

2). I tied a thread to the center of the needle so that the needle hung exactly - none of the ends outweighed the other.

3). I put the thread and needle into the jar (there may be wind outside).

The result is the same - the sharp end of the needle began to point to the north.

In an emergency, you can navigate the terrain without a compass. For example:

On a clear night by the stars (the pole star for the northern hemisphere, the southern cross for the southern hemisphere).

Moss grows on tree trunks, stumps, stones on the north side.

The crown of trees is more luxuriant on the south side.

Snow does not melt for a long time in spring on the northern side of the slopes of ravines, trees, large stones, any objects that create a shadow.

By using wrist watch with arrows on a sunny day. Point the hour hand towards the Sun. Divide the angle formed between the hour hand and the number 1 in half and this line will be the direction indicator to the South. The only condition is that this angle must be less than 90 degrees.

And of course, you can build a primitive compass from scrap materials. To make it, you need a steel object (a sewing needle, nail, screw or piece of wire) and any floating object in water into which you can stick or attach an object made of steel (a piece of foam, a piece of cardboard paper or torn from a tree, a cork cork from bottles of wine or a thermos, a sliver, finally, and of course a container of water (not steel) in which you need to place a steel object attached to a floating object so that they do not drown together. is that steel objects are weakly magnetized from magnetic field land sufficient for use as a primitive compass. The only difficulty that may arise is which end points to the North and which to the South. In this matter, only the Sun can help during the day, at night - the stars or the Moon.

A small steel needle can be made to float on the surface of the water on its own. To do this, rub it with your fingers a little (the fatter your fingers, the better) and carefully place it on the surface of the water. With due care in performing this procedure, it will float held by the surface tension of the water.

The children's compass indicates that the needle point is pointing towards the South. No manipulations were made with the needle (such as magnetizing with a magnet or heating the tip).

Sometimes on long trips there is an urgent need to correctly determine the cardinal points. It may even happen that the life and health of the members of the expedition will depend on it. If you have a compass, it doesn't matter. And if it is out of order or lost? Then the options are as follows: determine the cardinal points by the stars, the sun, signs, or make a primitive compass yourself. I just want to tell you how to make a compass yourself, using only the available materials. We will consider several variations of such homemade devices.

DIY compass from a needle and a container of water

A glass or ceramic container with fresh water (metal ones will not work, as they will distort the magnetic field).
Needle
A piece of floating material (cork, polystyrene, foam rubber)

Assembling a homemade compass

DIY compass without using liquid

Safety razor needle or blade
Transparent bottle
Thin thread or fishing line

We calibrate the resulting compass according to the method described in the last paragraph of the previous instruction and get the device ready to use.

As you can see, making a compass yourself is not that difficult. On the one hand, we looked at interesting solutions, but if you dig deeper, it becomes obvious that we have replenished our knowledge box with extremely useful information! Happy travels, friends.

And you still have an interesting video from the network on our topic:

How to make a compass with your own hands?

It so happens that you need to know exactly which side is south and which is north. At home, this can be useful when tuning the antenna, and travelers cannot do without such knowledge, especially in the wild. Of course, the easiest way is to use a regular compass. But what if he is not at hand? How to make a compass at home and outdoors? It turns out to be very simple. You do not need special devices - only the materials at hand that every home has, or they are easy to get in the forest.

How to make a compass at home

2. In order for it to become a real compass, it remains to magnetize one tip of the needle. Finding a magnet in an apartment is very easy. It is in the headset that holds the doors kitchen cabinet, or in the dynamics of the music center. To demagnetize the needle, just bring one tip to the gas burner and hold it over the fire for 20 seconds. Thus, the magnetized tip of the needle will show us north, the demagnetized tip will tell us where the south is. We put our structure in the water again.

How to make a compass in nature

2. For the second option, you need a bowl of water. We magnetize one end of the arrow and put it in a bowl, laying it on a piece of bark. The arrow will tell you where north is.

So now you know how to make a compass in any situation. This procedure will not take much time, even in a modern apartment, even in a dense forest. It is enough to show a little ingenuity, find suitable materials, create a simple device with your own hands, and you will always know exactly in which direction to move. Now you are not afraid of any troubles while traveling.

How to make a compass?

Situations when you may need a compass are different: you get lost in the forest, determine the north-south in the apartment, put furniture in Feng Shui. But, as always, at the right moment, there is not something important “at hand”, in this case a compass. What to do? Make it yourself. Below we will tell you how to make a compass and what you need for this.

Making a compass at home

You can make two types of compasses - on water and on a string.

For the first option, we need: a needle, a magnet, polystyrene, a wide glass container with water (a deep plate).

We draw a magnet along one of the tips of the needle, 20-30 times in one direction. This is how we magnetize it.
We make a compass arrow. We insert the needle into the foam so that both ends look out of it. At the same time, our arrow must keep exactly on the water, without turning over, that is, it is necessary to clearly find and establish the center of gravity.
We lower the arrow into a container of water. It will start spinning and after a while will stop, the magnetized end will point to the north.

For the second option, we need a magnet, a needle, thread, scotch tape, a piece of paper, a pencil, scissors and a glass container (a 3 liter jar is suitable).

We magnetize one end of the needle.
Insert a needle into a piece of paper.
We glue the thread to the paper with tape, fix the other end of the thread on a pencil. Equalize the center of gravity of our arrow.
We lower the arrow into the jar, and put the pencil on the support (the neck of the jar).
The arrow will start spinning and the magnetized tip of the needle will point north.

Now you know how to make a do-it-yourself compass at home.

For this we will use the materials at hand. Of course, it is advisable to go on hikes, to hunt for mushrooms, put a wire or a nail, a piece of thread and a magnet in your pocket, but if some of this is not there, it doesn’t matter. We propose to consider two options for creating compasses in extreme conditions.

First: we need something small, metal. This can be a needle, a piece of wire, or a nail. Now we need to magnetize one of its ends, how to make a detail in a compass, the most important one - an arrow, if there is no magnet? You can magnetise a metal object by rubbing it. Rub it on your hair or woolen clothing. Now we attach a thread to our arrow. Be sure to find the center of gravity and balance the wire, otherwise the result will be incorrect. The length of the thread must be at least 40cm. We take the second edge in our hands or tie it to a stick and set it on a support. After our arrow spins and balances, the magnetized edge will point accurately to the north.

For the second option, we need a hole with water or a bowl. We magnetize one end of our "arrow". We take a leaf of a tree or a piece of bark and put it there. We put all this in a puddle and see where the tip of the arrow points. There will be north.

As you can see, making a compass is not difficult in any situation, you just need to be smart. You can experiment at home first. If something goes wrong, we type in a search engine: how to make a compass - video, and watch. Now, for sure, there are no questions left.