Editing Course (navigation) (section)

{{Short description|Cardinal direction for steering}}
[[File:Navigational rules types.JPG|thumb|Instruments used to plot a course on a nautical chart.]]

In [[navigation]], the '''course''' of a [[watercraft]] or [[aircraft]] is the [[cardinal direction]] in which the craft is to be [[Steering|steered]]. The course is to be distinguished from the ''[[Heading (navigation)|heading]]'', which is the direction where the watercraft's [[Bow (watercraft)|bow]] or the aircraft's [[Nose cone|nose]] is pointed.<ref name="Bartlett">
{{Citation|last=Bartlett|first=Tim|title=Adlard Coles Book of Navigations|year=2008|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RWUQAAAAQBAJ&q=pilotage|page=176|publisher=Adlard Coles|isbn=978-0713689396}}</ref><ref name=Chapman>
{{cite book
 | last = Husick
 | first = Charles B.
 | title = Chapman Piloting, Seamanship and Small Boat Handling
 | publisher = Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.
 | date = 2009
 | page = 927
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=S4FwbS8StvEC&q=definition+nautical+course&pg=PA50 | isbn = 9781588167446 }}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite PHAK|year=2016}}</ref>{{pn|date=January 2025}}
The path that a vessel follows is called a '''track''' or, in the case of aircraft, '''ground track''' (also known as ''course made good'' or ''course over the ground'').<ref name="Bartlett" /> The intended track is a '''route'''.