Cardinal direction

The four cardinal directions or cardinal points are the directions of north, east, south, and west, commonly denoted by their initials: N, E, S, W. East and west are at right angles to north and south, with east being in the clockwise direction of rotation from north and west being directly opposite east. Intermediate points between the four cardinal directions form the points of the compass. The intermediate (intercardinal, or ordinal) directions are northeast (NE), southeast (SE), southwest (SW), and northwest (NW). Further, the intermediate direction of every set of intercardinal and cardinal direction is called a secondary-intercardinal direction, the eight shortest points in the compass rose to the right, i.e. NNE, ENE, ESE, and so on.

Locating the directions

Direction versus bearing

To keep to a bearing is not, in general, the same as going in a straight direction along a great circle. Conversely, one can keep to a great circle and the bearing may change. Thus the bearing of a straight path crossing the North Pole changes abruptly at the Pole from North to South. When travelling East or West, it is only on the Equator that one can keep East or West and be going straight (without need to steer). Anywhere else, maintaining latitude requires a change in direction, requires steering. However, this change in direction becomes increasingly negligible as one moves to lower latitudes.

Northeastern United States

The Northeastern United States, or simply the Northeast, is a geographical region of the United States bounded to the north by Canada, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Southern United States, and to the west by the Midwestern United States. The Northeast is one of the four regions defined by the Census Bureau for the collection and analysis of statistics. The Census Bureau-defined region has a total area of 181,324 sq mi (469,630 km²) with 162,257 square miles (420,240 km²) of that being land mass. Though lacking a unified cultural identity, the Northeastern region is the nation's most economically developed, densely populated, and culturally diverse. Of the nation's four census regions, the Northeast is the second most urban, with 85 percent of its population residing within urban areas, led by the West with 90 percent.

Composition

The Census Bureau has defined the Northeast region as comprising nine states: the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont; and the Mid-Atlantic states of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Northeast (disambiguation)

Northeast or north east is the ordinal direction halfway between north and east.

Northeast, north-east, north east, northeastern or north-eastern or north eastern may refer to:

Places

Africa

Asia and Oceania

Europe