What is a rhumb line sailing?

A Rhumb Line (also known as a loxodrome) is a line on the earth’s surface that crosses all meridians at the same angle. It is used as the standard method of plotting a ship’s course on a chart. This constant course or line of bearing appears as a straight line on a Mercator projection chart.

What is the major advantage of a rhumb line track?

Following a rhumb line covers more distance than following a geodesic, but it is easier to navigate. All parallels, including the equator, are rhumb lines, since they cross all meridians at 90°. Additionally, all meridians are rhumb lines, in addition to being great circles.

Is parallel sailing a rhumb line sailing?

All parallels, including the equator, are rhumb lines, since they cross all meridians at 90º.

What is the characteristics of a rhumb line?

rhumb line. [geodesy] A complex curve on the earth’s surface that crosses every meridian at the same oblique angle. A rhumb line path follows a single compass bearing; it is a straight line on a Mercator projection, or a logarithmic spiral on a polar projection.

What is meant by rhumb line or loxodrome?

loxodrome, also called Rhumb Line, or Spherical Helix, curve cutting the meridians of a sphere at a constant nonright angle. Thus, it may be seen as the path of a ship sailing always oblique to the meridian and directed always to the same point of the compass.

What is the difference between a great circle and a rhumb line?

In other words, a great circle is locally “straight” with zero geodesic curvature, whereas a rhumb line has non-zero geodesic curvature. Meridians of longitude and parallels of latitude provide special cases of the rhumb line, where their angles of intersection are respectively 0° and 90°.

Are rhumb lines small circles?

Correct. A rhumb line is a line that crosses every meridian at the same angle. By definition that means rhumb lines are lines of constant direction. All parallels of latitude are both rhumb lines and small circles [except for the equator which is a rhumb line and a great circle].

What is Mercator sailing?

Mercator Sailing is another method of Rhumb Line Sailing. It is used to find the course and distance between two positions that are in different latitudes from the large D. Lat. and distance. It is similar to plane sailing, except that plane sailing is used for small distances.

What is parallel sailing?

Definition of parallel sailing



: spherical sailing in which the course is along a parallel and departure is the product of cosine latitude times the difference of longitude —opposed to meridian sailing.

What is D LAT?

Navigation _Definition of Latitude and Difference in latitude (D’lat)

What is the significance of middle latitude sailing?

A method of converting departure into difference of longitude, or vice versa, when the true course is not 090° or 270° by assuming that such a course is steered at the middle latitude.

What is Traverse table?

Definition of traverse table. 1 : a navigation or surveying table giving the difference of latitude and departure corresponding to any given course and distance and containing the lengths of the two sides of a right-angled triangle usually for every degree of angle and for all lengths of the hypotenuse from 1 to 100.

What are meridional parts?

Definition of meridional part



: the linear length of one minute of longitude on a Mercator chart.

How do you solve parallel sailing?

Video quote: The mathematical formula that parallel ceilings are based around is cost latitude is equal to departure divided by D long. The term departure is used to refer to the distance.

What is difference of latitude?

difference of latitude. The distance between any two places on the same meridian, or the difference between the parallels of latitude of any two places expressed in miles of the equator.

What are the 7 major lines of latitude?

Important lines of latitude:

• the equator (0°)
• the Tropic of Cancer (23.5° north)
• the Tropic of Capricorn (23.5° south)
• the Arctic circle (66.5° north)
• the Antarctic circle (66.5° south)
• the North Pole (90° north)
• the South Pole (90° south)

What are the 5 major latitude lines?

The five major parallels of latitudes from north to south are called: Arctic Circle, Tropic of Cancer, Equator, Tropic of Capricorn, and the Antarctic Circle.

Which is the biggest latitude?

The Equator

The Equator is the longest circle of latitude and is the only circle of latitude which also is a great circle.

Why do lines of latitude never intersect?

Two latitudes never meet at any point because they are parallel to each other. And also the latitudes have different lengths.

How many parallels of latitude are there?

3.1 on the next page). If parallels of latitude are drawn at an interval of one degree, there will be 89 parallels in the northern and the southern hemispheres each. The total number of parallels thus drawn, including the equator, will be 179.

What are the 3 types of latitude?

Technically, there are different kinds of latitude—geocentric, astronomical, and geographic (or geodetic)—but there are only minor differences between them. In most common references, geocentric latitude is implied.

What is the farthest point north on Earth?

Northernmost. The northernmost point on Earth is the Geographic North Pole, in the Arctic Ocean. The northernmost point on land is the northern tip of Kaffeklubben Island, north of Greenland (83°40′N 29°50′W), which lies slightly north of Cape Morris Jesup, Greenland ( 83°38′N 32°40′W).

How many parallel lines are on Earth?

Latitude is the measurement of distance north or south of the Equator. It is measured with 180 imaginary lines that form circles around the Earth east-west, parallel to the Equator. These lines are known as parallels. A circle of latitude is an imaginary ring linking all points sharing a parallel.