Who decided the North pole is "up" and the South Pole is "down"; what is the history behind this convention?
If you're in Australia, you'll be the right way up.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Did you know that in General Relativity, we are all floating freely in space and the Earth is accelerating up towards us? Can you picture two people standing on opposite sides of the Earth with the above in mind?
What an interesting notion. So is our attraction to the earth a result of these accelerating forces upward toward us?
Yup. Ever jump off a high diving board or on a trampoline. Do you "feel" any forces on you while in the air? Better yet, have you ever sky dived?
In that particular case there is no attraction to the Earth, it's just accelerating towards us faster than we can get away. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Heh, sounds fascinating; unfortunately while diving from a 3 meter diving board a long time ago, I discovered that I suffer from unilateral vestibular system disturbances. This was aside from the fact that I lost my bikini top and sank like a stone so that I had to be rescued by a guy I had a semi-crush on (oooooh the humiliation), but it sort of soured me from sky diving and the like. In this type of theory, what is the explanation for the gravitational attraction towards other objects (like moon, sun and whatever comes close enough to feel the pull)?
Looks like you had your mind on other things Saiyyadati... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
From: http://uplink.space.com/showflat.ph...r=48689&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=9&o=0&fpart= And http://www.diversophy.com/maps/whatsupsouth.pdf has some more information, including the interesting (and previously-unconsidered-by-me) fact the word orientation comes from "oriens" = East... Serious? Moi? You should know better than that.
Thats interesting. So it was during the renaissance? Hmm and when we say North that is at the tip of the imaginary axis ? Or not? (should've paid attention in geography too)
Well, since the Earth spins on a North-South axis it would only be logical to choose one or the other. And most of civilisation (civilisation being defined as those nations doing the defining Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! ) was North of the equator... they decided they were "up".
But thats just convention isn't it? So we have a start and an end. So does gravity work on air (gases) the same as it works on solids and liquids?
Of course it's just a convention. There's no "reason" for it other than that everyone uses the same convention. (Except my mother, who can never understand why somewhere we've just come from (if it's to the North), is marked as being ahead of us on a tourist map... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! ) Yes.
Cartographers did, Sam, ...the map makers. Something had to be at the "top" of the map, didn't it? And let's not forget that compasses point to the north, too. Baron Max
Sure but if you're facing South, north is down on a compass, yes?Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!