Who determined north and south?

Who determined north and south?

According to some, the tradition of putting north up and south down dates back to Ptolemy. But there is a perfect symmetry between the north and south magnetic pole of the Earth. Nothing moves preferentially from south to north–or from north to south–except in our imagination.

Why do we say up north and down south?

In general, map makers have agreed to put north at the top of maps. For world maps, because we often put them on a wall, north really is up, and south is down, even though on earth those directions are both horizontal. Sometimes people print maps in other orientations so they make more sense.

How were the Poles decided?

In 2009 the responsible IAU Working Group decided to define the poles of dwarf planets, minor planets, their satellites, and comets according to the right-hand rule. The negative pole is the pole toward which the thumb points when the fingers of the left hand are curled in its direction of rotation.

Is north actually south?

Compasses point to the magnetic North Pole. However, what we call the Magnetic North Pole is actually a south magnetic pole. Because Earth’s Magnetic North Pole attracts the “north” ends of other magnets, it is technically the “south pole” of the planet’s magnetic field.

Why is the north Pole considered up?

Most of our geographic and astronomic terms were developed in pre-history in the northern hemisphere. Even early astronomers noticed that Polaris, the north star, was ‘up’ in the night sky, so north as ‘up’ simply became the convention.

Why is the North called the North?

The word north is related to the Old High German nord, both descending from the Proto-Indo-European unit *ner-, meaning “left; below” as north is to left when facing the rising sun. Similarly, the other cardinal directions are also related to the sun’s position.

Why do people say down North?

They are used to referring to travel as going “down” somewhere. They used to live North of said place, and got used to saying “Down to”. They used to live North of the place they most commonly visited, thus growing up referring to travel as going “Down to” somewhere. Their parents or family do it.

Why is North Pole not on maps?

There’s a couple of reasons why the ice around the North Pole is not shown on Google Maps. Icy Greenland. A commonly cited reason is that the Arctic ice cap is floating on open ocean; there’s no land underneath that reaches sea level.

Why is north always up on maps?

It is guessed that because the Europeans were doing most of the exploration at the time in the northern hemisphere, choosing the north to keep on top was probably intuitive. Because of its usability, Mercators’ map soon became a world standard, and hence the idea of the north at the top stuck.

Is the North Pole up or down?

North being “up” is certainly northern hemisphere bias. Magnetic north and south are labelled after the tendency of a magnetic dipole to align itself with the Earth’s magnetic field. That field wanders and is currently about 10° off the polar axis.

Why do maps always show the north as up?

Why do maps always show the north as up? For those who don’t just take it for granted, the common answer is that Europeans made the maps and they wanted to be on top.

Why are the poles of the earth labelled north and South?

The labelling of the poles is entirely arbitrary, as is which direction is “up” on a map. North being “up” is certainly northern hemisphere bias. Magnetic north and south are labelled after the tendency of a magnetic dipole to align itself with the Earth’s magnetic field. That field wanders and is currently about 10° off the polar axis.

Does north end up at the top of the page?

In fact, with north seemingly settled at the top of the page in the 16th century, there were still some squabbles over who in the Northern Hemisphere would end up left, right or center. The politics of reorientation are anything but simple.