2. ESTIMATING HEIGHTS, WIDTH AND
DISTANCE
• When you’re out in the field navigating the land or doing any number of outdoor chores and
tasks, you may for a variety of reasons need to measure the heights and widths of objects like
trees and rivers. But oftentimes these objects are so large and out-of-reach that trying to
measure them with a tape measure would be foolhardy and impractical.
• Luckily, there are a few little field-expedient tricks that scouts have used for centuries to
estimate the height and width of objects using nothing but sticks and a bit of geometry. While
there are smartphone apps out there that can do the same thing, in order to become more
antifragile, it’s always good to know how to do this kind of thing sans technology. Plus, it’s fun.
• Note: For many of these methods, you’ll need to know the length in feet and inches of a
normal pace for you, as pacing is required to determine the measurements. To find the length
of your pace, take a normal step and measure from the heel of your back foot to the toe of your
front foot.
3. ESTIMATING HEIGHTS, WIDTH AND
DISTANCE
• How to Estimate Height in the Field
• If you’re felling trees, you’ll want to know how tall they are beforehand so
they won’t come crashing down on your car or campsite. But how do you
measure the height of a tree without climbing up to the top with a tape
measure?
• Here are a few traditional tricks used by lumberjacks and scouts to
estimate the height of trees and other tall objects like canyon cliffs and
waterfalls.
4. ESTIMATING HEIGHTS, WIDTH AND
DISTANCE
• The Felling Method
• 1. Back far enough away from the object you’re measuring that you can see both the top
and the bottom of it. Hold a stick upright at arm’s length, ensuring the top of the stick
appears to touch the top of the object.
• 2. Rotate your arm 90 degrees so it’s lined up with the horizon, simulating that the
object has fallen, hence the term “felling.”
• 3. Have your buddy stand at the point where it looks to you like the tip of the stick ends.
Place a marker there, like a stone or another stick.
• 4. Pace the distance between the marker and the base of the object to estimate its
height.
5. ESTIMATING HEIGHTS, WIDTH AND
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• The Stick Method
• This method requires relatively flat ground to get a good estimation.
• 1. Find a stick the length of your arm.
• 2. Hold your arm out straight with the stick pointing straight up (90-degree
angle to your outstretched arm).
• 3. Walk backwards until you see the tip of the stick line up with the top of the
tree. Your feet are now at approximately the same distance from the tree as it
is high.
6. ESTIMATING HEIGHTS, WIDTH AND
DISTANCE
• The Proportional Stick Method
• This is a variation of the Stick Method and requires a second person.
• 1. Have a buddy (whose height is known) stand beside the object to be measured.
• 2. Stand far enough away from the object that you can see both the top and the bottom of it. Hold a pencil or
stick at arm’s length, and with one eye, sight over the stick so that the top of it appears to touch the top of
your friend’s head.
• 3. Place your thumbnail on the stick where it seems to touch the base of the tree trunk. Now move the stick
up to see roughly how many times this measurement goes into the height of the tree.
• 4. Multiply the number obtained from step 3 with the height of your friend to determine the approximate
height of the object.
7. ESTIMATING HEIGHTS, WIDTH AND
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• Shadow Method
• This method only works on a sunny day. The ground will need to be relatively flat, as
any slope will throw off the measurement.
• 1. Measure the shadow cast by the tree (from the base of the tree to the shadow of its
top) and label this length as AB.
• 2. Measure the shadow cast by someone or an object of known height. Label this length
as CD.
• 3. Calculate the height of the tree with the following formula (AB x the height of your
body)/CD = ~ object’s height.
8. ESTIMATING HEIGHTS, WIDTH AND
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• Estimating Widths in the Field
• Let’s say you’re doing some land navigation and you come to a placid river that
you need to cross. You know you can swim 100 yards easily, but the river looks
wider than that. How can you figure out the width of the river without getting
wet and without a tape measure?
• Or let’s say you come to a ravine. How do you know how far the other side is so
you can lash together a bridge to cross it?
• Here are two methods that can solve these dilemmas and give you a rough
estimate of widths.
9. ESTIMATING HEIGHTS, WIDTH AND
DISTANCE
• Napoleon/Salute Method
• 1. Stand as close to the shore of the river as you can.
• 2. Bow your head, chin against chest. Hold your hand to your forehead, palm down (like
you’re saluting).
• 3. Move your hand down until the front edge of it seems to touch the opposite shore.
• 4. Turn your whole body a quarter turn left or right, “transferring” the distance to the
shore you’re standing on. Notice the point at which the edge of your hand seems to touch
the shore upon which you’re standing. Pace to it. The distance to the point which the
edge of your hand seems to touch is roughly the width of the river.
10. ESTIMATING HEIGHTS, WIDTH AND
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• Stride Method
• This method requires a bit of geometry, but can give you a fairly accurate estimation of
the width of a river.
• 1. Select an object on the opposite side of the river, such as a tree or rock and mark it as
“A.”
• 2. Place a stick on your side of the river exactly opposite of landmark A. Mark that stick
as “B.”
• 3. Walk along the shore at a 90-degree angle from Point B for a certain number of paces.
Let’s say 50 steps, for example. Place a stick there. Mark that as point “C.”
11. ESTIMATING HEIGHTS, WIDTH AND
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• 4. Continue walking for half the distance that you just paced. So in our
example, that would be 25 paces. Place a stick here and mark it “D.”
• 5. Turn away from the river and walk until marker C and A line up in a
straight line. Place a stick here and mark it as “E.”
• 6. Walk and count your paces from point D to point E. The distance
between D and E is ½ the distance across the river. Double that number
and you have the distance, in steps, across the river. Multiply the number
of steps by the length of your pace to get the distance in feet.
12. ESTIMATING HEIGHTS, WIDTH AND
DISTANCE
• Estimating distance in the field
• First, pace of 200 meters, then pick out objects which are of the same distance. After
practicing judging short distances, gradually extend the length. By increasing the
distance ten meters at a time you can gain familiarity with aby reasonable distance: a
hundred, a hundred and fifty of two hundred meters can be estimated. Perspective will
play tricks on you at first. It will look as if a second, the third and fourth fifty meters are
shorter than the first. But after some practice you will be able to judge correctly.
• You must remember that the distance is judged from the eye to the object without taking
into account the contour of the intervening ground. The following are some helpful hints
in judging distances which have been adapted from Lord Baden-Powell`s Scouting for
Boys:
13. ESTIMATING HEIGHTS, WIDTH AND
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• The range of object is usually overestimated:
• a. when kneeling or lying
• b. when the background and the object are familiar colors
• c. on broken ground
• d. in avenues, long streets or ravines
• e. when the object is under the shade
• f. in the mist or falling rain or when heat is rising from the ground
• g. when the object is partly seen
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• The range of object is usually under-estimated:
• a. when the sun is behind the observer
• b. when the atmosphere is clear
• c. when the background and the object are of different colors
• d. when the ground is level
• e. when looking over water or a deep chasm
• f. when looking downward or upward
15. ESTIMATING HEIGHTS, WIDTH AND
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• It is worth while to know and remember the following facts:
• a. at 100 yards, the eyes appear as points
• b. at 200 yards, buttons and any bright ornaments can be seen
• c. at 300 yards, the face can be seen
• d. at 400 yards, the movement of the legs can be seen
• e. at 500 yards, the color of cloths can be seen
16. ESTIMATING HEIGHTS, WIDTH AND
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• OBSERVATION ACTIVITIES
• Some Scouters seem to have the idea that any game which contains a training content is
necessarily less fun than a game which has very little training value. It is important to
remember that Scouting is a Movement for training boys and not a Movement merely for
entertaining them. It is clear from the Founder's writings and from all that he said to us
that it was his intention that we should train Scouts and that the playing of games was
one of our training methods. All this presupposes that any game we play should have a
purpose and that the fun is there for good measure and is not the principal motive.
• The importance of this particular section of the book lies in the fact that, unless we
make a conscious effort to develop the natural senses of our Scouts, all other activities of
Scouting become difficult and, on occasion, impossible.
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• In the wider sphere there is no question whatever that the man who has his senses
acutely developed is in a position to benefit more from all that life has to offer and,
through being able to benefit, is able to make a more important contribution. This is not
the place to go into great detail, but it is as well to remind ourselves that such activities
as Knotting, Mapping, First Aid, Pioneering, Estimation, Reporting, etc., are only
carried out effectively if Scouts have been trained to be observant. To take one example;
it is no uncommon thing to see Scouts struggling earnestly and manfully to tie a knot
correctly, but without much hope because they do not really know at what they are
aiming, and if only they had a mental picture of the finished knot they are seeking to
produce they would be able to work much better towards an accurate completion.
• All this amounts to saying that, whether indoors or outdoors, sense-training games
should occur pretty frequently in our programmes because they do improve the quality
of all our Scouting, and they do, above all, build up that alertness of mind which is the
hallmark of the trained Scout.
18. ESTIMATING HEIGHTS, WIDTH AND
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• One other aspect of the matter needs mentioning. We have prided ourselves for over
forty years on our willingness to render service to the public in a vast variety of ways,
and yet it is manifestly impossible to render service unless we are trained, first of all, to
carry it out and, secondly, to be sufficiently alert to observe the need for service.
• Practically all the games that follow are what one might call basic, in that it should be
possible with a little ingenuity and imagination to build an infinite variety of games that
grow out of the root of the basic game. There is always a danger, in presenting sense-
training games, of falling into the error of training the memory (which is a good thing in
itself) and misleading ourselves and our Scouts to the idea that we are training them to
use observation. Some years ago there was an unusual Scouter; unusual in that he was
orderly above normal, and in his Troop Headquarters could be found carefully labelled
boxes and drawers for almost every conceivable activity in which the Troop took part.
19. ESTIMATING HEIGHTS, WIDTH AND
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• Amongst these drawers was one which bore the caption "Kim's Game," and in it was the
usual assortment of miscellaneous objects. In course of time his Troop, so he believed,
became quite incredibly good at "Kim's Game" and it was rare for any boy to score less
than twenty-one marks out of a possible twenty-four. What the Scouter failed to realise
was that the contents of his carefully labelled drawer had become part of the tradition of
the Troop. His Scouts would have scored just as many marks had he merely announced"
Kim's Game "and not bothered to open the drawer. This, of course, is a classic example of
the error. It was a splendid piece of memory training, but when these same Scouts were
faced with a different assortment of articles the results left a great deal to be desired. All
this adds up to saying that in any form of Kim's Game, dealing with any of the senses,
there is a need to vary the situation and the articles.
20. ESTIMATING HEIGHTS, WIDTH AND
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• Finally, sense-training must be progressive if it is to have any effect. We
must begin with simple things and gradually, almost imperceptibly, lead
our Scouts on to complicated and more difficult things.
