DISCUSSION AN AZIMUTH IS AN ANGULAR MEASUREMENT IN A SPHERICAL COORDINATE SYSTEM.

THE VECTOR FROM AN OBSERVER (ORIGIN) TO A POINT OF INTEREST IS PROJECTED PERPENDICULARLY ONTO A REFERENCE PLANE; THE ANGLE BETWEEN THE PROJECTED VECTOR AND A REFERENCE VECTOR ON THE REFERENCE PLANE IS CALLED THE AZIMUTH. AN EXAMPLE IS THE POSITION OF A STAR IN THE SKY. THE STAR IS THE POINT OF INTEREST, THE REFERENCE PLANE IS THE HORIZON OR THE SURFACE OF THE SEA, AND THE REFERENCE VECTOR POINTS NORTH. THE AZIMUTH IS THE ANGLE BETWEEN THE NORTH VECTOR AND THE PERPENDICULAR PROJECTION OF THE STAR DOWN ONTO THE HORIZON. IT IS A COMMON METHOD USED IN DESIGNATIG THE DIRECTION OF A LINE. THE AZIMUTH OF A LINE IS

ITS DIRECTION AS GIVEN BY THE ANGLE BETWEEN MERIDIAN AND THE LINE MEASURED IN A CLOCKWISE DIRECTION FROM EITHER THE NORTH OR SOUTH BRANCH OF THE MERIDIAN. AZIMUTHS ARE PREFERRED OVER BEARINGS BY MOST SURVEYORS BECAUSE THEY ARE MORE CONVENIENT TO WORK WITH SUCH IN COMPUTING TRAVERSE DATA BY ELECTRONIC DIGITAL COMPUTERS. THE AZIMUTH OF A LINE MAY RANGE FROM 0 TO 360 DEGREES AND LETTERS ARE NOT REQUIRED TO IDENTIFY QUADRANTS. FOR ANY PARTICULAR SURVEY THE DIRECTION OF ZERO AZIMUTH IS EITHER ALWAYS NORTH OR SOUTH. SOME SURVEYORS RECKON AZIMUTHS FROM THE SOUTH AND SOME FROM THE NORTH BRANCH OF WHATEVER MERIDIAN IS SELECTED AS A REFERENCE.

IN PRACTICE, AZIMUTHS ARE GENERALLY MEASURED FROM THE NORTH BRANCH OF THE REFERECE MERIDIAN FOR ORDINARY PLANE SURVEYS. FOR LARGE SCALE GEODETIC AND IN ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS AZIMIUTHS ARE MEASURED FROM THE SOUTH BRANCH OF MERIDIAN. AZIMUTH IS USUALLY MEASURED IN DEGREES (). THE CONCEPT IS USED IN NAVIGATION, ASTRONOMY, ENGINEERING, MAPPING, MINING AND ARTILLERY. AZIMUTHS MAY BE CALLED TRUE, MAGNETIC, ASSUMED, OR FRID, DEPENDING ON THE REFERENCE MERIDIAN FROM WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN MEASURED. THEY ARE REERED AS TRUE AZIMUTHS WHEN MEASURED FROM THE TRUE OR ASTRONOMIC MERIDIAN, MAGNETIC AZIMUTHS WHEN MEASURED FROM THE MAGNETIC MERIDIAN, GRID AZIMUTHS WHEN REFERRED TO THE CENTRAL MERIDIAN IN A

GRID SYSTEM, AND ASSUMED AZIMUTHS WHEN REFERRED TO AN ARBRITRARILY SELECTED LINE. A SURVEY TRAVERSE IN WHICH THE DIRECTION OF A MEASURED COURSE IS DETERMINED BY AZIMUTH AND VERIFIED BY TAKING A BACK AZIMUTH. TO MAKE THIS KIND OF TRAVERSE, AN INITIAL MERIDIAN USABLE AS REFERENCE MUST BE ESTABLISHED.