Measure distance, no maths, no map, no compass
Вставка
- Опубліковано 6 лип 2024
- Using the Rule Of Thumb will give you a reasonably accurate distance from you to your target. It’s very simple to do, so go outside and give it a try.
Oh this works as the distance between your eye and your out-stretched thumb is VERY approximately ten times the distance between your eyes, so any extended angle will also have the same ratio.
Another trick I’ve learned is you can tell how much sunlight is left by holding your fingers sideways and every finger from the horizon to the sun is fifteen minutes it works really good like three fingers is 45 minutes till sunset. As a builder it’s been useful.
I like that idea, I'll give that a try - IF it ever stops raining
I've actually tried this a bunch of times in lots of different countries. 15 mins seems about twice as long as reality to me, it's somewhere around 5-10 mins but seems to vary on latitude and time of year.
I like the idea of estimating by number of fingers, but this will also vary person-to-person. How long is their arm, and how fat are their fingers?
@@poyndextr that's one of the reasons why it's only an estimate 😄
I used to be so good at this that I could wow my coworkers by getting the time right down to within 5 minutes. Since I stopped landscaping, I haven't used it much. It helps out a lot if you know around what time the sun sets in your area, then you can approximate the time of day very accurately. Another trick is to see how far the sun is away from directly overhead of you (which would be 12pm), count how many fingers it is, then you have a basis to approximate when it rose and when it will set
I was fine, right up until I closed my other eye and everything went dark... ;)
Tunnel vision maybe ?
Think about it... @@joeys5429
Look behind you.
😂
So sorry to hear you only have one eye
Pretty cool! You're basically using your eyes as a horizontal stadimeter. Submarines in WW2 often used a similar method to judge distance to ships, albeit much more formulaic and precise. A prism in the periscope rotates and creates two separate images, and then the distance from waterline to highest mast on the ship is compared to the arc length covered by distance between the two images (like the two horizontal points here) and used to estimate distance to the ship for calculating a firing solution for the torpedoes.
To clarify: the ship needs to be identified first for the method to work, so the mast height is taken from a book, so it has a bit added accuracy compared to the method in this video.
I sort of recall that it was something like 2 miles for every foot in height at sea?
Duuude. Thanks for sharing that. Neat stuff :)
wearing glasses is a handy tool.small increments in the bifocal glass
Thanks for sharing. I fly a drone and for legal flying you need to be able to estimate 50m away from people and 150m for buildings. I’m terrible at estimating distances. I’m going to give this a go and pace it out.
The illegal flying is much more fun.
Or just be good at judging distances!
@@danthemansmail For real
JUST HAVE A GET AWAY DRIVER AND KEEP GOING DOWN THE ROAD ... IF STOPED THEM THEM THE DAMN DRONE IS FOLLOWING YOU !!
be careful where your drone's going while you're squinting at your thumb though 😂
Well it works! I stood in our hallway, pointed my thumb to the kitchen, and my thumb moved exactly the width of a kitchen cabinet. The cabinet is a standard 60cm so this meant I was about 6 meters away. I got my tape measure out and it was 6.3 metres, so not bad for my first attempt!
When I went through USAF (pilots) training, survival classes (if shot down) back in the late 1960's we were taught this. You might not have a compass or anything but your pistol on you. I'd completely forgotten about this trick till I saw your video and thought to watch. It does work. Capt ret USAF 20th SOS, 27th Spl Ops Wing, Nam 1970 -73.
thankyou for your service sir.
I’m going through SERE at the end of this month and am a little bit nervous!
I know it’s amazing training but still… Not looking forward to “Resist.”
I was in Vietnam during that time frame (First Air Cav). You may have saved my behind. Thank you for your service!
How do you measure distances of 5km or more?
Always good to see one of the warriors of the old world around
I feel like for long distances, you'll have a very difficult time gauging how far the two reference points are that you're looking at
Well with practice you'll get way better to the point you'll be able to tell after awhile.
An object of known size in the distance could potentially help. For example, if there's a car where you're looking at, you could say 4-5 car lengths, should be around 20-25 meters, since a sedan is like 4.5 - 5 meters long typically.
That's not a "feeling", that is rationalism...
@@Deniz1923 In the mountains, you'd not be able to spot a car at the relevant distances. It is too small. In my country, at least. I can see a few scenarios where this can be useful, but otherwise OP is correct. Also at shorter distances there's no point, as you can just walk there in a few seconds or a couple of minutes.
@@MrDxfusionWith practice you can just tell the distance. No need for rule of thumb.
Easiest explanation of rule of thumb I've seen on UA-cam.Thanks
This is so simple and good!
Amazing video and straight to the point
That's so cool! When anchoring my sailboat, it's so hard to estimate the distance to other boats or obstacles. This will be a big help... Thank you.
well on a boat if there are even small waves, it will highly affect what you'll see, almost impossible to use this method.
@@AllThatInterestingStuff No we are used to compensating and averaging in waves. Try using a bearing telescope in waves. Thumb is quick n dirty approximate. Very useful.
Did not know the chicken rule.
Did not know the distance method.
Thanks for both.
I give it a thumbs up! It is valid, the ratio is 10:1 - the thumb distance to the eyes ~55cm (10) and the distance between eyes is ~5,5cm (1).
love such tricks which were a basis for ages while hunting, building etc. great vid!
Brilliant! And bloody entertaining. Thank you.
Your videos are really great very informative and you're a very nice guy I've been subscribed to you for a while now few months since I found your videos but they're really great and this is Easter Sunday and I hope you have a happy holiday
Very useful! He reminds me of Vault Boy, with the whole rule of thumb also (apparently) being used to measure distance of Nuclear blasts, and the blue t-shirt with the yellow collar just sold it.
Still, extremely simple to follow and understand, thank you sir!
Great tip with explanation. Thank you for all your hard work, measuring the distance for us…
This is very useful for those who have problems judging distance. Thank you.
That’s great. Thanks. I’ll try it on the golf course to save the faff of getting out the laser rangefinder. Cheers.
Such an underrated channel!
Another great estimate of something I have is this ;
I worked in the heating and cooling business for a couple of years, I worked with my boss and he asked me how much 1/2", rolled up, copper pipe we had left. We had 2 rolls of it left, 1 roll being much longer. I walked to the truck and thought 🤔🤔🤔🤔
I don't want to unroll it all out, how will I do this...
It's simple, I came up with this by myself, and nobody taught me.
I took the roll in my hand and counted the "loops"... It was 15.
I then measured the diameter (not the id and not the od. The middle d), let's say it was 29 inches.
15 x 29 x pi(3.14) = 1366 inches or 114 feet.
No unrolling needed.
I do this with coils of wire too or extension cords. I'm usually within 3 inches!
Great tip.. will try it on the golf course
Hi Wayne
I have heard of the saying before, but not in navigating. Very useful rule of thumb to know.
Phil
You are very good and knowledgeable, I bet your courses are superb
Phils tend to be awesome.
Loved it the way you explained.
Thumbs up
That was a really handy teaching. I shall remember that when I am out walking.
Fascinating, thanks for sharing 👍 😊
Wow it actually works.
I stood back until the distance was 2 bricks from one eye to the next, which is 48cm. I measured how far back I stood and it was 5m. Not bad...
thank you - i never thought i would be able to understand it but it was super easy :D
Legend. I remember a friend in the army telling me about this year's ago but didn't explain it as well as you thanks
Thank you, great tip
Thank you so much! I never knew that.
Everyone has a different size body. So take the distance from your eyes to your extended thumb and divide by the distance between your right and left eyes. This gives the exact ratio.
This can be hard to measure so an alternative method is to put a meter stick on the ground and then distance yourself until your thumb points to each end of the meter stick when using alternative eyes. Now measure how far away you are from the meter stick and you have your ratio. This will vary depending on the person but once measured, is very accurate.
Also note that you should just use the centre of you thumb for aligning things as this prevents the width of your thumb from becoming a factor. And tilt your head (if required) so that your thumb stays parallel to the distance you are trying to measure when switching between eyes.
But it's the ratio of the distance between your eyes and the length of your arm that's important. The proportions of the human body are pretty similar for most people. This is why it works so well (most of the time)
I believe that your are somewhat over thinking the "rule of thumb" concept.
JESUS H. CHRIST. The whole fucking point was to have a way to make a simple estimation that is approximately correct.
If you want to measure your thumb alignment you could also just use 10 cm instead of a 1 meter stick
You could also always use the outer part or inner part of your thumb as the markingpoint. That makes it even more accurate
I tried this. It worked! THANKS!! (California, USA)
From time to time someone posts something truly interesting...this is one of those times. Thanks for sharing sir
That's brilliant!
Thank You Sir! Very interesting and I tried it in my home while watching your video! Pretty Good!
Modest cheerful person, kinda made me feel a bit light. Much love map guy
Great video! Thank you.
And i gave you a thumb up for the pretty neat explanation 👍
Great idea, thank you!
👍 EXCELLENT - THANKS !
Nicely explained. Let me give you a thumbs up!
Well, thumbs up for this handy video
The thumbs up at the end was a perfect natural closer to this video. For someone who seems to be uncomfortable on camera he done good
This video just radiatee pure joy. We couls tell you had a blast filming this hahaha 🎉
Sweet info, thanks!
Can’t wait to try this on the golf course….lol!!
I've been an outdoorsman for decades. I can't believe I've never seen this method before! Thanks!!!
Incredible video, thank You for this knowledge :)
I just tried this and tested it. It actually works! Pretty much on the money. New skill added.
Cool tip. Good job.
Cool tip!👍
Lovely little video 👍
So the distance between your eyes is about 3 inches and the distance between your eyes and your thumb is about 30 inches so this defines the angle and by the rule of similar triangles the ratio will be the same for the far triangle. For me, however, my arms are apparently shorter and the ratio is about 8.5. Oh, now I see he explained this above.
Average interpupillary distance is 63mm not 75, I’m an optometrist btw.
@@davidbridgman6892 fascinatingly, it doesn't change once youre an adult. You might gain/ lose fat in the face, but it stays the same
Awesome trick!
Great tip.
Thanks, I just discovered your channel and subbed.
I have navigated wilderness since the 1960s. I have been lost only once because I left my compass in camp because after supper I was just going into the woods maybe 100 yards and didn't think I needed it but got turned around and came out about a mile away. I didn't even know how lost I was until I came out . I got scolded by my uncle for not having my compass with me. Everything I my uncle taught me about being lost came true, panic, denying that I was lost, heart rate increased, breathing , sweating and not thinking clear. Only when I sat and calmed down did my wits return and I found my way out. I NEVER go into the woods without a compass.
I do use GPS now but still carry maps and compass and have needed them when GPS failed.
Pretty good man, thanks.
I'll tell you why you did that at the end; It was a sly trick to get me to like the video. A subliminal message to klick the thumbs up. AND IT F***ING WORKED!!
Nice video man! Thanks for the tip ^^
This is taking advantage of a property known as "parallax". So the perceived distance between the object when viewed by either eye is based on the distance between your eyes (the angle, relative to the object), which is basically a known distance. So with that, you can get a rough idea of how far things are away by taking advantage of a part of your physiognomy.
Cool , reminds me of my vavo who was in ww2 n had nifty tricks like he used his watch n the sun to find true north, so, w, e , to get back to camp wen he got lost in the woods getting branchez for firewood , im glad i subbed
that’s amazing, thank you!
Glad you like it!
Very good information.
Good info. Good video.
and you explained way better than other video's how they measure the distance (though more accurate) to other stars and galaxy's.
I learned a cool approximation tool as well as the origin of "rule of thumb" ....it's only 10 in the am. I need to pace my new information. I thought I was gonna go the whole day without learning something new....now thats all jacked up.
cheers
Isn't that the moon thing? Where we stretch out our thumb until it covers the moon and then we can ascertain certain 'flat' distances on a galaxial scale? Or is that just some warped memory of some other thing I learned years ago, like finding South in Australia by tracing a perpendicular line between the 'Two Pointers' of the Southern Cross and one down through the centre of the cross? Where the two lines meet, you drop an imaginary line and that's the direction of south...roughly.
Love this!
i guessed 280ft based on your camera view of your thumb, I'm impressed! Gonna show my cousins this
It works for me. Thank you.
Amazing!!!
Great video!
Good explanation!
Good tip!
the shifting i leanr in astronomy, its called parallax. thank you for sharing...
I have done some math with the triangle formed by the eyes and the thumb.
If the distance between the two points on the landscape is approximately 90 meters, your distance is about 1 km.
If it is approximately 450 meters your distance is about 5 km.
If the distance between the two points is roughly 2.5 km, your distance is around 30 km and so on.
So yes there is a proportional correlation between the distance of the two points and your distance to the points. By multiplying the distance of the points by ten you get a rough 10% margin of error, you can multiply by 11 and this should give you a more precise guess, but as already said this is always a rule of thumb because you have to guess the distance of the two points but in theory it works pretty fine.
That is pretty cool! Caveman trig! Definitely accurate within a few percent. Close enough for cannon fire.
Hmmm..ok,but….nobody cares about 100m…the usefulness is more applicable to like Km or miles….and that is where a problem arises. You will have to estimate the horizontal distance between two points which will be too greatly separated to guess easily, possibly more than half a mile apart. I am not rubbishing the principle, but you’ll need that horizontal guesstimation method to make it work for practical mid to far distance Rule of Thumb. Well presented video…Thank you.
So you are educated and work in an office, in a city ? You are city people mentality.
Correct - but often you are able to spot 'known' dimensions - say cars, buildings, height of trees, width of road etc to assist you to estimate the gap.
@@varmepumper3940 That's the only time it would really work at all. A mountain range in the distance wouldn't be helpful if you have no sense of the actual scale of the mountain. Maybe if you have a mountain range that you knew was X miles wide, but if you're having to use this, you're probably somewhere you wouldn't know that information. It would actually be more useful for knowing how far you've left a place. Like for example, if you were by a waterfall you figured was about 20ft across, then walked away from it and looked back.
You could then use that as a reference to say how far away you've gotten from it. But I don't know how that would really be useful to anyone looking to navigate distances with it, because eventually that reference point will lose line of sight. You'd essentially have to stop and build a reference multiple times. So when you walked away from that waterfall and measured how far you went, you'd find something else nearby where you stopped and figure its width, and do the same thing again from far, and adding estimations together. Then you will know how far you've went. It would actually make more sense to use this method in conjunction with a map that did have distances written on it, if you knew where you were and how far you've travelled, you could estimate how far you've gone on the map.
The real issue with distances though, even knowing scales of things, is topography. With enough hills and elevation changes in the land, the actual distance you need to walk could be double. So you'd have to get a feel for it, with flat land being the baseline measurement, and them knowing hilly areas would be much more than the base guesstimate.
This could be handy when trying to adjust your field on a rifle scope, though I usually just focus.
thanks! this is fun .. going to try this
Great tip
I was a tank commander we learned that in the Swiss army. Good old days!
it would be interesting to also measure how correct your horizontal estimation was and compare with the measured "vertical" distance. if your estimation of 9-10m is wrong and is actually about 8.6 m, then the rule of thumb is almost exact.
I agree with you. I should have measured the distance between the tree and track going in to the forest.
I only start making videos a few months ago, so I'll get better at it - hopefully 😊
Well explained Sir
Thanks for sharing
Thanks dude!👍
Out walking tomorrow morning - will try 😊
Close enough. I like it. 😊
IT WORKS! THANKS!!
Thanks for the lecture
At measuring long distances, you are substituting the guesswork of measuring straight line distance for horizontal (left to right) distance using this method.
Thank you 😊
What a cool Channel, and an excellent Person to help folks learn Navigation!
Got yerself another Subscriber!
Thank you!
Thank you useful information
Amazing video
Brilliant.
very good video!
Thumbs UP!...thank....
Good stuff!
I dont think i will be in a situation to ever rely on this, but I think this is a cool fun fact just to know and guesstimate distances
Okay. I'm an apprentice carpenter. The Moment I understood the task I did it my Ps5 is mounted on the wall at a certain distance from my TV. Had an eye of a carpenter moment and said 200 mil. Got the tape out and from my eyes to exactly where I was looking was exactly 2 metres.
Thanks for emphasizing it is an estimate, and making people who will never have common sense unable to claim "bUt i sAW tHIs vIdEO" in their fallacious or outright inverted "reasoning".
I've studied a master in outdoor stuff (non-translateable) and hiked since before I could walk (and started skiing before I was 3), yet this is useful - despite being _VERY_ aware you should _NEVER_ go anywhere remote without a map and compass - *EVEN* if you have a GPS.