Why is North up?

[Deuce Bigolo]

i seem to recall the continent of OZ and where the aborigines came from up north were almost as one when they migrated so very little navigation would have been needed unlike the poor smucks from europe who first found OZ

Your most likely right as usual...star on the southern sky..the southern cross perhaps

[jj]

From Wiki [but seem sensible]:
"Sigma Octantis is the closest star to the south celestial pole, but it is too
faint to serve as a useful pole star. The Southern Cross constellation
functions as an approximate southern pole constellation, by pointing to
where a southern pole star should be. At the equator it is possible to see
both Polaris and the Southern Cross*.".

*yes, but only at certain times of the year.

[Deuce Bigolo]

Add in their eyesight & night vision and its easy to see how they came so far

back to the question at hand

If north is Up?

Then south must be down?

I can't see in any model how Europe can be anywhere but in the northern hemisphere especially given the way the earth rotates

[jj]

Where you are, Europe is [very approximately] under your feet, .i.e.
BELOW you, yes?
So isn't it more natural to think of it as being 'down'?
And by extension, you are then 'up', and by further extension, 'North'?

[Deuce Bigolo]

You could argue the same about europe eh?

I'll become a believer when you tunnel through into my living room

[jj]

Deuce Bigolo wrote:
> You could argue the same about europe eh?

That's precisely the point I was trying to make. It all depends on your
chosen point of view.

[alec]

It isn't, except in common, geographically illiterate, language.

'Up' is away from the centre of the earth and 'down' is towards the centre of the earth. The common usage of regarding the top of the piece of paper as 'up' is a real bugbear in describing landscape from a map. (I don't know if they still do this sort of map reading in geography lessons.) If you are not careful you can describe rivers as flowing uphill. The Nile flows north. Does it flow uphill?

Re 'upside down' maps, the geographer Peter Gould did a survey of where British school leavers preferred to live (back in the early 70s) and asked them to show their preferences on a map of Britain - which he turned 'upside down' to make London and the south-east appear remote. (The book is called Mental Maps.)

Yes, the convention of putting north at the top of the page is just that, a (Eurocentric) convention, but if you are making a map of a country or region of an awkward shape and orientation, sometimes North is not at the top of the page. In those cases there is usually a graphic pointing North.

[Sam Slater]

Alec is obviously correct. 'Up' is just the opposite direction to which the main gravitational force, acting upon your body at the time, is pulling you.

However, looking at a two-dimensional map, North is conventionally at the 'top' of the page. (You should have used the word 'top' wazza !laugh!).

Since our brains are only designed to navigate our bodies in three-dimensional space, the we must choose a 'top' and a 'bottom' for the Earth. Direction would be meaningless otherwise. Since 80% of the worlds population is in the northern hemisphere, then -as I stated before- most people start drawing around the top left-hand corner of a page. (it's also the first place anyone glances to upon opening a new web page - sweeping diagonally to the bottom right corner). Any map drawn by a European will have Europe left of centre, and 2/3rds of the way up the page.

The male brain -in general- finds it much easier to form 3d shapes within the mind, from 2d drawings and pictures, than the female mind can. This is a big reason why lots of women turn maps around to the direction they're travelling, while men do not. I'm also guessing that this is the main reason why men will find a 2d image of the naked female form much more pleasurable to look at than a woman would looking at a 2d image of an attractive male. Both sexes prefer looking at 3d objects, but the female mind finds it much more difficult to get turned on by a 2d image.

This is why I told Wazza than these upside down maps are going to be harder for the girls to grasp.

On a much more serious note: I've found out why maps are orientated they way they are! It's because if you put the south pole to the top of the page, all the countries names are upside down and harder to read - you silly buggers!

[jj]

Thanks for explaining my lack of success with a certain woman- I must
have had a 2D erection at the time.