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Is there a truly rationale basis here (other than “magnetic north” which is equally arbitrary and has rotated)? I’d argue since the vast majority of the world’s
by ghayes 6y ago
Is there a truly rationale basis here (other than “magnetic north” which is equally arbitrary and has rotated)? I’d argue since the vast majority of the world’s population lives in the northern hemisphere, it generally makes sense to put that at the top, all else being equal.
- xvedejas 6y agoOn the contrary, it makes the most sense to place some point of the equator on top, so that you can rotate to look at any part of the globe you want, surely?
- slavik81 6y agoIt's a lot easier to add the rest of the solar system if it rotates around the Earth horizontally, and you need that to explain the day/night cycle, seasons and tides.
- samatman 6y agoCall me weird if you must, but I would prefer a globe rotate in the same fashion as the planet does: around the poles.
- mkl 6y agoThat's perfectly compatible with the poles being on the sides and the equator being on a vertical plane. In fact, many globes can be tilted to this position and the main rotation still happens around the poles.
- thaumasiotes 6y agoThey all do, but you can have more than one dimension of rotation. Look at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085K2ZPWB/ https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085K2ZPWB/ . You're still free to spin the earth backwards, though.
- iso1631 6y agoInteresting, so a globe on a 90 degree axial tilt rather than a 23 degree one. I'm sure I've seen such (either fixed at 90 degees or variable from 0-90 degrees), but I can't see any after a quick browser online.
- deepstack 6y agono, just most people lives on top that's all.
- paul_f 6y agoFor one, the southern hemisphere is mostly water.
- 4gotunameagain 6y agoBut if the majority of the population lives in the northern hemisphere, shouldn't that make it heavier and thus flip the earth, placing the south pole on the top?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- yesbabyyes 6y agoI think there is, actually: The Milky Way Galaxy. South is "down" towards the center, North is "up" towards the exterior. It was a revelation to realize this after growing up looking at the Milky Way in Northern Europe, that we're somewhat stationary in relation to the galaxy.
- andi999 6y agoCan you explain this more? I do not understand this
- RichardCA 6y agoThe galactic center roughly aligns with the constellation Sagittarius, which is considered a southern constellation. If you try to do milky way astrophotography in the northern hemisphere you quickly find out you are limited to the late spring / early summer, because you want to be seeing the southern sky at night. Most of the year the sun is too close to Sagittarius during daylight hours, making viewing impossible.