Heading (navigation)

In navigation, the heading of a vessel or aircraft is the compass direction in which the craft's bow or nose is pointed. There are seven fundamental ways to find the heading of a vehicle.[1] Note that the heading may not necessarily be the direction that the vehicle actually travels, which is known as its course or track. Any difference between the heading and course is due to the motion of the underlying medium, the air or water, or other effects like skidding or slipping. The difference is known as the drift, and can be determined by the wind triangle.

This triangle shows the aircraft's heading towards point B (HDG), and its course towards C (TR). The drift angle, in red, is due to the wind, green.

Notation

Heading is typically based on compass directions, so 0° (or 360°) indicates a direction toward true North, 90° indicates a direction toward true East, 180° is true South, and 270° is true West.

gollark: Again, why? Before an egg is fertilized, there must necessarily exist some point at which it wasn't yet but that was likely to happen soon.
gollark: Does that matter? They're still ultimately quite likely to produce a zygote and then quite likely to produce a fetus and whatever else after that.
gollark: Yes.
gollark: Probably wouldn't work very well otherwise.
gollark: I assume that sperm have some sort of magic™ egg-finding capability.

See also

References
  1. Gade, Kenneth (2016). "The Seven Ways to Find Heading" (PDF). The Journal of Navigation. Cambridge University Press. 69 (5): 955–970. doi:10.1017/S0373463316000096.


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