Answers to ‘Get Your Bearings’ Quiz

Find the answers to the GET YOUR BEARINGS QUIZ below.

1. A

2. B, 80 degrees

3. C, the vertical distance (in feet or meters) between contour lines

4. 1,000 feet. One degree of compass error equals about 92 feet per mile of ground error.

5. B, upstream.

6. D, 1,250 feet. 50 feet x 5 contour lines = 250 foot rise. 250 divided by 1,000 = 1,250

7. B. Your chance of hitting a campsite dead-on is small. It’s better to purposefully bear slightly right or left of the camp and then follow the shoreline to it. This is called “aiming off.”

8. A, steep hill.

9. B, 320 degrees.

10. A, Point C. This procedure is called “triangulation.”

11. C, on the level. Contour lines connect points of equal elevation.

12. A, 280 degrees.

13. C, a larger scale map provides more detail.

14. B, Map B.

15. B. This is another example of “aiming off.”

16. B. The Earth’s magnetic force causes the north end of the needle to top down in the northern hemisphere and to tip up in the southern hemisphere. A compass needle that’s weighted (balanced) for the U.S. won’t spin freely in Zambia.

17. B, false. The seldom do.

18. B.

19. A.


9 Comments

  1. In the “Get Your Bearings” article by Cliff Jacobson, on pages 40 and 41 of the March-April 2014 paper copy of the Scouting Magazine, questions 15 to 19 do not exist.

    • Mark: My thoughts exactly. Same comments apply to Camping quiz in May/June issue.
      Interesting the amount of emphasis being placed on technology when cell phones and other electronic devices are often banned from campouts?

  2. This is a great exercise. Not enough units have what we call “old scout-craft skills” in their program. I teach map & compass at our district IOLS courses, and find many leaders lacking the basic skills of a First Class scout. We need a training program similar to the old Wood Badge (pre-21st Century), to train leaders in our outdoor skills. The current Wood Badge is good stuff, but we need an advanced scout-craft skills program.

    • AMEN! Our district had a skills course for over 40 years that incorporated the standard national course, plus patrol spirit and skills, and the council made us shut it down because it wasn’t weak and generic like the everyone elses! Woodbadge is great, but there should be something in between basic and Woodbadge. Woodbadge teaches ‘leadership’. We need a intermediate course that teaches “Scouting”.

      • I agree! The 21st Century Wood Badge is good training, but we need a course that gives more than just IOLS. The IOLS course is just that, an introduction to outdoor skills, it does not give leaders enough knowledge to teach the skills to scouts. National Council needs to recognize this!

  3. The explanation for answer #6 should say, “250 plus 1,000” instead of “250 divided by 1,000”.

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