Like the title says. I’m trying to explain triangulation to my actual five year old, but don’t really understand it myself. Help!
In: Earth Science
I’m a Soldier on a recon mission. Way off in the distance I see a tank. I call another team on the radio, and they can see the tank, too. I pull out my map and check my GPS, noting my position on the map. The other team does the same. I then take out my compass and I check the direction to the tank, then draw a line in the same direction from my location on the map. The other team calls me up, gives me their location and the direction to the tank from them. I plot their location on the map, draw the line from their location on the angle they gave, and where our two lines cross is where the enemy tank is located.
This works the other way, too. Say *I’m* the tank, and I’m fuggin lost. I pull out my map and take a look around. I see a radio tower off to my left, and a water tower *waaaaay* off to the right. I find the radio tower and water towers on the map (it’s a good map). I then pull out my compass and figure out the directions from me to each feature. I then go to my map, and draw the reverse angle from each location on the map (meaning, if the water tower is at an azimuth of 270 from me, I draw the line at 090). Where those two lines cross is where my sense-of-directionless ass is, and now I can find my way home.
By the way, the technical terms for these are “intersection” and “resection.”
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