Eli5 How can one tell where south, north, east or west is without using a compass, looking at a map or already knowing?
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To find North, you need to give some form of reference point that you know the direction of to use as a reference.
The most obvious of these is the sun – it rises in the East and sets in the West, so by knowing roughly what time it is you can get an approximate direction.
You can refine this if you have access to a watch – in the northern hemisphere, if point the hour hand at the sun, a line drawn halfway between the hour hand and 12oclock will point South (if you are in the southern hemisphere, this will point North).
At night you can also use the stars – you can very accurately plot your position using the stars, a couple of tools and some knowledge, but more reasonably, by learning to find a few obvious constellations and a few stars in particular like the pole stars, you can get a rough direction.
You often hear of traditional methods like looking at the way plants grow and similar, but honestly these are generally so unreliable they aren’t worth considering.
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