Comment on Why don't compasses have just two Cardinal directions (North, East, -North, -East)?

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leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨14⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

Most Mediterranean cultures used to have names for at least eight winds, each at 45 degrees from each other. Greeks (and therefore Romans) used twelve, at 30 degrees.

Here’s a classic navigator’s wind rose, for instance, with 32 different named winds / directions (might be a bit hard to read on dark backgrounds, here’s the original SVG):

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