4 ms·

To get a sense of it, just visit the opposite hemisphere (edit: on Earth).

glenngillen 4y ago
What do you mean by that? The sun sets in the west whether you live in the northern or southern hemisphere. That said, I’m not there’s any appreciable/perceptive difference to which way the sun sets for us anyway. It’s not like we have some internal compass that naturally grounds our cardinal direction. Our only frame of reference during the day on which way is east or west is the movement on the sun. If it suddenly started going the opposite direction it’d be weird if your were experiencing it in a familiar location. If you were somewhere where you’d never experienced a sunrise or sunset before (i.e., as little as a few miles away) I suspect you’d not even notice the difference. You’d have no frame of reference to suggest anything had changed.
- wyldfire 4y ago
  > It’s not like we have some internal compass that naturally grounds our cardinal direction. I'm reminded of "Story of Your Life" [1] / "Arrival" [2] wherein a character's language shapes their thoughts. Those are fiction, but there's also some supporting non-fiction evidence. Apparently there's a tribe of humans on Earth (in Australia) whose language primarily refers to cardinal directions when describing the location of things - as in "hand me the north cup on the table". I don't think that's the only one - there's also Tenejapan Mayans [4]. From the latter group there's cited examples of an experiment with blindfolded/dizzy Tenejapan in a darkened interior who can identify the cardinal directions accurately. All of this is to say that maybe in fact some humans actually can sense this as if they had an internal compass. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Story_of_Your_Life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Story_of_Your_Life [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrival_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrival_(film) [3] https://pages.ucsd.edu/~jhaviland/Publications/ETHOSw.Diags.pdf https://pages.ucsd.edu/~jhaviland/Publications/ETHOSw.Diags.... [4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3095761/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3095761/
  - JumpCrisscross 4y ago
    > there's cited examples of an experiment with blindfolded/dizzy Tenejapan in a darkened interior who can identify the cardinal directions accurately Strongly calling B.S. on this claim.
    - mattkrause 4y ago
      I doubt a human could directly sense magnetic north, but with practice you could perhaps learn to integrate external cues (like sunrise/set) with your own movements to keep track of the cardinal directions.
    - pencilguin 4y ago
      Ignorant skepticism is exactly equally as bad as ignorant credulity. There is no physical reason humans could not have a latent magnetic sense. Other animals are known to have it. So, experiment is determinative.
- KineticLensman 4y ago
  When I visit the southern hemisphere I’m always struck by how weird it is that the sun is going the wrong way across the sky. It really messes with my sense of the time of day.
  - zaroth 4y ago
    If the sun is going the wrong way across the sky, it’s not because of the hemisphere you’re on. I wonder if this is like an implanted memory that you have or what?
    - murkt 4y ago
      It’s going east-to-west in both hemispheres, that’s for sure. However, in the northern hemisphere the Sun goes from left to right, and in the southern from right to left, when you’re looking at the Sun.
      - adolph 4y ago
        I guess that is true in the higher latitudes on Earth. On Venus the tilt is 2.64 degrees, so it would be even more apparent in lower latitudes.
    - KineticLensman 4y ago
      > I wonder if this is like an implanted memory that you have or what? As pointed out below, it's because in my normal latitude (south UK) the sun moves from left to right (as you face South) and at a similar distance below the equator, it goes from right to left (as you face North). So at home when I look at the Sun I know that a couple of hours later it be quite a bit to the right of where it is now, and I can use this to assess where shadows will be.
      - glenngillen 4y ago
        Seems like this would only be true if you’re above the Tropic of Cancer and then comparing to below the Tropic of Capricorn. Between those zones the left/rightness of travel would change dependent on the season.
- PeterisP 4y ago
  While sun always moves from east to west, in northern hemisphere, if you look at the sun then it's towards the south and moves left to right; and in southern hemisphere the sun is towards the north and thus moves right to left.
zaroth 4y ago
Umm… what?

What do you mean by that? The sun sets in the west whether you live in the northern or southern hemisphere. That said, I’m not there’s any appreciable/perceptive difference to which way the sun sets for us anyway. It’s not like we have some internal compass that naturally grounds our cardinal direction. Our only frame of reference during the day on which way is east or west is the movement on the sun. If it suddenly started going the opposite direction it’d be weird if your were experiencing it in a familiar location. If you were somewhere where you’d never experienced a sunrise or sunset before (i.e., as little as a few miles away) I suspect you’d not even notice the difference. You’d have no frame of reference to suggest anything had changed.

wyldfire 4y ago
> It’s not like we have some internal compass that naturally grounds our cardinal direction. I'm reminded of "Story of Your Life" [1] / "Arrival" [2] wherein a character's language shapes their thoughts. Those are fiction, but there's also some supporting non-fiction evidence. Apparently there's a tribe of humans on Earth (in Australia) whose language primarily refers to cardinal directions when describing the location of things - as in "hand me the north cup on the table". I don't think that's the only one - there's also Tenejapan Mayans [4]. From the latter group there's cited examples of an experiment with blindfolded/dizzy Tenejapan in a darkened interior who can identify the cardinal directions accurately. All of this is to say that maybe in fact some humans actually can sense this as if they had an internal compass. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Story_of_Your_Life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Story_of_Your_Life [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrival_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrival_(film) [3] https://pages.ucsd.edu/~jhaviland/Publications/ETHOSw.Diags.pdf https://pages.ucsd.edu/~jhaviland/Publications/ETHOSw.Diags.... [4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3095761/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3095761/
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago
  > there's cited examples of an experiment with blindfolded/dizzy Tenejapan in a darkened interior who can identify the cardinal directions accurately Strongly calling B.S. on this claim.
  - mattkrause 4y ago
    I doubt a human could directly sense magnetic north, but with practice you could perhaps learn to integrate external cues (like sunrise/set) with your own movements to keep track of the cardinal directions.
  - pencilguin 4y ago
    Ignorant skepticism is exactly equally as bad as ignorant credulity. There is no physical reason humans could not have a latent magnetic sense. Other animals are known to have it. So, experiment is determinative.
KineticLensman 4y ago
When I visit the southern hemisphere I’m always struck by how weird it is that the sun is going the wrong way across the sky. It really messes with my sense of the time of day.
- zaroth 4y ago
  If the sun is going the wrong way across the sky, it’s not because of the hemisphere you’re on. I wonder if this is like an implanted memory that you have or what?
  - murkt 4y ago
    It’s going east-to-west in both hemispheres, that’s for sure. However, in the northern hemisphere the Sun goes from left to right, and in the southern from right to left, when you’re looking at the Sun.
    - adolph 4y ago
      I guess that is true in the higher latitudes on Earth. On Venus the tilt is 2.64 degrees, so it would be even more apparent in lower latitudes.
  - KineticLensman 4y ago
    > I wonder if this is like an implanted memory that you have or what? As pointed out below, it's because in my normal latitude (south UK) the sun moves from left to right (as you face South) and at a similar distance below the equator, it goes from right to left (as you face North). So at home when I look at the Sun I know that a couple of hours later it be quite a bit to the right of where it is now, and I can use this to assess where shadows will be.
    - glenngillen 4y ago
      Seems like this would only be true if you’re above the Tropic of Cancer and then comparing to below the Tropic of Capricorn. Between those zones the left/rightness of travel would change dependent on the season.
PeterisP 4y ago
While sun always moves from east to west, in northern hemisphere, if you look at the sun then it's towards the south and moves left to right; and in southern hemisphere the sun is towards the north and thus moves right to left.

zaroth 4y ago

Umm… what?