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Disorienteering
Mar. 12th, 2007 04:48 pmSomething I read recently reminded me of this idea I once had.
Orienteering is the sport of navigating with a map and compass. I've done some orienteering activities at camps, it's fun — of course, competitive orienteering requires that you be a good navigator and a fast runner/biker/etc., and I'm only the former.
The basic idea of navigating with a map and compass is that you can use the compass to orient the map to the terrain. This works because the Earth's magnetic field is approximately uniform over a small area. However, the Earth's isn't the only magnetic field! "Disorienteering" is the (so far imaginary) sport of navigating with a map and compass through an obstacle course of strong, local magnetic anomalies. Puzzles involved in a disorienteering course might include instructions to turn electromagnets on or off to alter the course, instructions to travel in the straight line indicated by a bearing or to follow a (curved) magnetic field line, unmarked reference points located at the intersection of two path segments, etc.
One thing I'm curious about is how much hardware you'd need to set up a disorienteering course. The Earth's magnetic field isn't all that strong, but to create a magnetic obstacle course big enough for a person to get lost in (if you can't get physically lost in it, might as well just call it a board game...) might call for a lot of electromagnets...
Orienteering is the sport of navigating with a map and compass. I've done some orienteering activities at camps, it's fun — of course, competitive orienteering requires that you be a good navigator and a fast runner/biker/etc., and I'm only the former.
The basic idea of navigating with a map and compass is that you can use the compass to orient the map to the terrain. This works because the Earth's magnetic field is approximately uniform over a small area. However, the Earth's isn't the only magnetic field! "Disorienteering" is the (so far imaginary) sport of navigating with a map and compass through an obstacle course of strong, local magnetic anomalies. Puzzles involved in a disorienteering course might include instructions to turn electromagnets on or off to alter the course, instructions to travel in the straight line indicated by a bearing or to follow a (curved) magnetic field line, unmarked reference points located at the intersection of two path segments, etc.
One thing I'm curious about is how much hardware you'd need to set up a disorienteering course. The Earth's magnetic field isn't all that strong, but to create a magnetic obstacle course big enough for a person to get lost in (if you can't get physically lost in it, might as well just call it a board game...) might call for a lot of electromagnets...
