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Subject: Bearings, Courses, Headings, and Tracks
From: Dan Allen (danallen46@XXX.XXX)
Date: Tue Feb 05 2002 - 18:28:17 EST
From the American Heritage Dictionary are the following quite
ambiguous definitions:
bearing n.
Direction, especially angular direction measured from one
position to another using geographical or celestial reference lines.
course n.
1. Onward movement in a particular direction; progress.
2. The direction of continuing movement: took a northern course.
heading n.
The course or direction in which a ship or an aircraft is moving.
track n.
A path along which something moves;
a course: following the track of an airplane on radar.
Here are my own definitions that I use to keep things straight in my
mind, and they correspond to Garmin GPS labels as well! ;-)
The **course** is the direction you want to go from postion A to B.
One is rarely on this line, especially in a car. It is the theoretical
"as the crow flies" path, with a constant compass heading.
The **bearing** is where B is with respect to your current position.
It has nothing to do with A. It has everything to do with answering
the question "which way do I need to go right now in order to get to B"?
The **track** is the current compass direction you are heading. The
track has nothing to do with where A or B is with respect to you. It
is only about what direction you are currently going.
I don't use the word **heading** much for the reasons that were pointed
out by Jared Sherman.
Dan
Daniel K. Allen
mailto:danallen46@XXX.XXX
http://home.attbi.com/~danallen46/
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