I have a digital compass built into my car and another in my wrist watch. I regularly use it to help navigate. For example, if I go somewhere I am not familiar with and then want to return home, I glance at the compass whenever I come to a major intersection to determine which way to go. Since I generally know the cardinal direction of my destination relative to my starting point, having a compass makes it easy to get around unfamiliar streets without having to constantly look at a map or GPS device.

When I park my car in a large parking lot, such as at a fair, amusement park or airport, I often glance at my compass to figure out what direction my car is relative to the entrance. This makes it much easier to find my car when I need to return to it later.

The compass can even come in handy when walking around a densely built up area, such as downtown Los Angeles. The tall buildings on both sides of the roads can make it difficult to orient yourself, and a compass solves that problem nicely.

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