Digital compass - heir of the magnetic compass

There are disputes in history, knowingly doomed to finding in any case the wrong answer, because they are based on an unrecoverable error. One of these emerged quite recently, since humanity has acquired a global positioning system : who is more accurate - a digital compass or magnetic? People who ask such a question clearly did something wrong in the school lessons of geography ...

Here is the first clarification of the question: which pole do you want to go to?

The answer seems to be asking itself. Even the obvious ignoramuses even from those geography workshops, when the Adrianov compass (now a rare thing, by the way) served as a device for orientation on the terrain, willy-nilly learned that the blue end of the compass needle always points to the north. So, the North Pole. Accordingly, the red end is to the south end.

Logical, but wrong. Such a response would be appropriate, say, in the 18th century, when the sphericity of the Earth had already been proved, but none of the researchers had yet looked at its top and "antipodal" side. However, in his young years the history of the compass did not know any poles at all. Simply, since the ancient Chinese, noticed that the magnetized iron needle always points in one direction, and used it in navigation on land and at sea. And when the compass in the XIII century transit through the Arabs got to Europe, the captains of ships initially were careful not to use the novelty - they were afraid that they would be accused of witchcraft. But when they understood what was happening, the great geographical discoveries began, for which the compass was rightly included in the list of the greatest inventions of the human mind.

And in the XIX century, with an interval of 10 years, the British polar explorer John Ross and his nephew James reached, respectively, the northern and southern magnetic poles of the Earth. And immediately determined that they do not coincide with the geographical poles.

Later it was found out: besides that, they also drifted on the earth's surface. Behind them is not that a digital compass, a magnetic one will not steal. The average speed of their movement is 10 kilometers per year. Approximately three and a half centuries the northern magnetic pole wandered through Canada, and in the second half of the last century, suddenly, with "terrible" speed (in 2009 - 64 kilometers per year!) Rushed to Russia, to the Taimyr Peninsula. So now the arrow of the magnetic compass, if you follow it exactly, will lead you to the Arctic ice pack, to the point with the coordinates of 85 degrees 54 'minutes north latitude and 147 degrees east longitude.

Now that we've understood this, we'll figure out how the digital compass works, it's also electronic. No magnets are needed here, of course. The receiver, by signals from the satellites of the GPS or GLONASS system, determines its location, puts data on the grid of the map and immediately displays the direction to the north, but in this case - already on the geographic pole.

All other functions of the electronic device are determined by its purpose. The most perfect ones help to make and remember a dozen routes with hundreds of control points, to measure the distance traveled and the speed of movement, to count the steps taken, and at the same time the calories that were burned at the same time. Hand on heart, this is not a compass, but a navigator.

And here it is important to clarify a second time the question of which digital compass you mean. Since there are devices using two-axis magnetic resistors for orientation to the sides of the light. In principle, they are the same classical compasses that check the direction to the poles along the magnetic field of the Earth. With all the consequences.

But, dear fans of electronic stuff, what will you do if all this machinery fails or remains without energy? Will not you need a good old magnetic compass in this case?