Why is North up?

[jj]

No, it's merely a convention. From space Earth merely has directionality
with respect to another given reference-point.
The earliest [known] map-makers were European and [naturally] oriented
their home territory to the top.

Also, the magnetic Poles reverse every 50 000 years or so- I think we're
due a reversal fairly soon, geologically speaking [we're also overdue an
Ice Age, statistically speaking].

[BeestonBoy]

And so the "Big brains" of this forum meet and discuss some thing up until 20 minutes ago I knew nothing about!!

This is one thread im gonna watch.....im all ready nearly completely lost,but totally fascinated!!

jj....please stick with the "Eleven year old" understanding explanation. Ten year old if you think you can manage it would be appreciated.....

Cheers

BB

[Sam Slater]

Given that Europe and Japan are in the northern hemisphere, with these places being seafaring adventurers, then I guess 90% of their travelling was in a southerly direction.

Don't children mainly start drawing in the top left-hand corner of the paper (mostly)? They start off drawing the sun first, then clouds, then horizon, then house, then mummy & daddy...........right?

So a Viking, Briton, or Japanese seafarer would start with a map of his country, and add bits of coastline as he travelled, further down the page.

And anyway, even if the Australian Aborigines were the first seafaring explorers, and map makers; if they'd used the north star as a reference point, maps would probably still be as we know them today.

That's my theory anyway.......

Why would Australians want an upside down map anyway? What disadvantaged position are they in being near the bottom of maps? Are they having trouble finding their way home at night?

[Arginald Valleywater]

Err because North is above South and consequently you have to go up to get to something higher.

Also moving North gets you away from the cesspit that is London, the nastiest, least friendly and most overpriced place on earth.
Once past Sheffield, officially the first place in The North, manners improve, beer has a head, people speak to eachother out of courtesy. Hence you are moving up in the Quality of Life stakes (until you get to Middlesborough, where it all goes horribly wrong) . We have the Peak District, The Moors, Pennines, Lake District, less crowded roads and English is still the language of choice, not "estuary" as is spoken darn sarrf...

[BeestonBoy]

Sam Slater wrote:



>
> Why would Australians want an upside down map anyway? What
> disadvantaged position are they in being near the bottom of
> maps? Are they having trouble finding their way home at night?
>

Going by the Australians I have known they all most certainly are having trouble finding their way home of an evening. But I doubt very much it has any thing to do with Cartography !wink!


Hope this finds you well "Shaft"

BB

[jj]

warren zevon rip wrote:
> Now explain that in words that 11 year olds can understand
I'm not sure that I can [which is doubtless why I'm not a teacher], but I'll
have a think and get back to you on that one. However:
If you hold a conventional map upside-down, is North now at the bottom,
or still at the top? We agree, for consistency, that it's now at the bottom
[you might turn a map around while in a car to get a better 'feel' for where
you're going but the streets don't suddenly move, outside the car]. But we
don't have to agree, as 'North' is just a name; also, at the North Pole
every direction is deemed to be 'down', just as at the South Pole you can
only go 'up'. Things are further complicated by the true magnetic poles,
which stay in the same relative positions irrespective of orientation of
viewpoint; and the earth is tilted at an angle while simultaneously rotating
through space AND round the Sun. There are also Galactic Poles, in
relation to which the Solar System is actually 'upside down'. In the end it
all depends on the coordinates you select, and from which point you
view the system- in this context it's instructive that experimanters have
worn glasses that reverse left and right and which disorient the body for
a while- until the brain's software 'corrects' for the 'error' and reimposes
the original coordinates so that the disorientation disppears.

>
> I thought we were still IN an Ice Age, because both poles are
> still frozen, which hasn't been the case for most of Earth's
> history.
Ice Age is a relative term. AFAIK the Poles HAVE been glaciated for most
of the Earth's history, although the Poles themselves have shifted
geographically. A sudden massive increase in the proportion of the surface
covered by ice-sheets is an Ice Age. We're pretty much at maximum
recession now [10 000 or so years ago the ice reached to the Channel].
A little more and the North would become sea, and the South more or less
Temperate land. It would then take another major axial shift or possibly
an extraterrestrial impact for them to be restored.