Compass rose two adjacent cardinal directions. For example, North-by-east (NbE) is one quarter wind from North towards East, Northeast-by-north (NEbN) is one quarter wind from Northeast toward North. Naming all 32 points on the rose is called "boxing the compass". The 32-point rose has the uncomfortable number of 11° between points, but is easily found by halving divisions and may have been easier for those not using a 360° circle. Using gradians, of which there are 400 in a circle, the sixteen-point rose will have twenty-five gradians per point. Linguistic anthropological studies have shown that most human communities have four points of
Compass equivalence theorem points A, B, and C, construct a circle centered at A with radius the length of BC (that is, equivalent to the solid green circle, but centered at A). It is possible to prove compass equivalence without the use of the straightedge. This justifies the use of "fixed compass" moves (constructing a circle of a given radius at a different location) in proofs of the Mohr–Mascheroni theorem, which states that any construction possible with straightedge and compass can be accomplished with compass alone. Given points A, B, and C, construct a circle centered at A with the radius BC, using