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Could it be that they orient themselves to the sun? And the magnetic alignement is just coincidental?
by ralfd 4y ago
Could it be that they orient themselves to the sun? And the magnetic alignement is just coincidental?
- joezydeco 4y agoI thought about the sun as well. Animals are at their most vulnerable when pooping and want to be able to spot anything coming at them. If you're pointed east or west you have a stronger chance of having the sun directly in your face. Your peripheral vision could be knocked out.
- FerretFred 4y agoHahaha.. in Yorkshire (UK) we don't often get sun, so when our terrier aligns himself North>South to take a dump I'm sure he's using the Earth's magnetic field. Not only that, he always does it in 2 stages, so I'm guessing "part 2" will be more accurately aligned.
- mc32 4y agoThey could check it out at night?
- eimrine 4y agoOr maybe in artificial magnetic field?
- FerretFred 4y agoI'll check it out with a compass next time my dog takes a dump in the forest!
- pyinstallwoes 4y agoWhy would the magnetic alignment be coincidental rather than fundamental?
- lupire 4y agoMagnets aren't the only things that run north-south
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- aendruk 4y agoI think the point is it’s no coincidence that the planet’s magnetic field is aligned with its axis of rotation and the plane of the solar system. But that’s missing the point of its parent comment, which is conjecturing about the dog’s immediate sensory input, not root causes.
- daveslash 4y agoMy thoughts exactly. I mean.... I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to actually be magnetic fields, but at this juncture that seems speculative at best. "Correlation doesn't imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing 'look over there'." https://xkcd.com/552/ https://xkcd.com/552/
- deltasevennine 4y agoCorrelation does not imply causation is a cliche. Why do people constantly repeat this quotation without the obvious extension? What is causation and how is it established? Seems pretty obvious, yet for some reason most people never ask this question or are even aware about how to establish it. They just say correlation doesn't equal causation and are suddenly psychologically frozen. Their biases prevent them from taking the obvious step forward. The experiment to establish causation is simple. Tape a magnet to your dogs head, observe if there are any differences in pooping behavior.