Bearing (navigation)
A "bearing" is a term used (for example) in navigation, although it can also be used to refer to simply our direction of motion. Bearings can be measured in mils or degrees. In navigational terms, "bearing" is perhaps more usually the angle between our forward direction, and the direction from us to another object. It typically refers to the direction of, some object, as seen by us, compared to our current heading. In other words, it's simply the angle between our forward direction, and a line towards the object in question. The term can also be used to mean the "absolute" compass direction of an object, as seen by us.
In aerial terms, "bearing" means the actual compass direction of the forward course of our aircraft. In land navigation, bearing means the angle between a line connecting us and another object, and a north-south line. (ie, a meridian.)
Read more about Bearing (navigation): Other Terminology Sometimes Used, Bearing Measurement
Famous quotes containing the word bearing:
“In our most trivial walks, we are constantly, though unconsciously, steering like pilots by certain well-known beacons and headlands, and if we go beyond our usual course we still carry in our minds the bearing of some neighboring cape; and not till we are completely lost, or turned round,—for a man needs only to be turned round once with his eyes shut in this world to be lost,—do we appreciate the vastness and strangeness of nature.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)