The most powerful of the drafting tools

Seventy First Post: The most powerful of the drafting tools

If the instructor of a class gave a drafting test and only allowed one tool out of a triangle, a scale, a straight edge, a French curve, and a compass which would you choose considering it is not known what kind of drawing will be on the test?

You should pick the most powerful and most versatile of the drafting tools: the compass. The compass is so powerful. Not only can it draw circles and curves, it can be used for many geometric constructions such as dividing lines and determining angles.

The compass is so useful in geometry that it is allowed to be used on tests. If you, the reader has never tried the compass for math before get an intro to technical drawing book and practice the constructions. Basically any math that isn’t pure theory can probably use a compass to explain it or use as a visual aid.

So next time you use a compass don’t just look at it as the tool that makes circles look at it as a scale with the ability to measure proportions, a pair of dividers, and a template that creates all the basic shapes. All those uses plus it is the thingy that makes circles.