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I guess the article implies that you're facing towards the sun, so if you are in Australia you will generally be looking North.

yawpitch 3y ago
If you’re facing towards the sun you’re rotating, facing west at dawn and east at dusk. If you’re above the Tropic of Cancer you’ll be rotating clockwise through facing south at noon… if you’re below the Tropic of Cancer you’ll be rotating anticlockwise through facing north at noon. If you’re between the Tropics you’re spin will be determined by the season… if you’re on the equator you’ll have spent half the year spinning clockwise, half spinning anti clockwise, and one very confusing day not spinning at all but pitching (or rolling, depending on your starting position). What won’t happen is that you start the day on one side of the equator, facing towards a pole which that east and dawn is on your left and, never changing your facing but proceeding to the other side of the equator, expect the sun to set on your left. The article implies that left and right flip when you pass the equator… they don’t. There’s no natural relationship between your hands position relative to the axis of your nose and the planet’s rotation relative to the sun.
- mastazi 3y ago
  If you are in Sydney at sunrise and you look towards the rising sun and keep looking in the same direction, after a while the sun will be to your left. If you are looking North, the sun moves from right to left. If you are looking South, the sun is behind you, so you're not looking at it. There is no direction you can look at, that lets you observe the sun moving from left to right. [1][2] If you are between the tropics, for example in Cairns, which is in Northern Queensland, then yes as you said depending on the time of the year, you could be looking South at the sun moving from left to right. But, only a small minority of the Australian population live North of the Tropic of Capricorn, and the above is true only during a certain period of the year. So I think that's beyond the point the OP is making... [1]: unless you place yourself upside down. [2]: I found another exception: if you are looking at the sun through a mirror
  - yawpitch 3y ago
    The article didn’t make its point precisely because it failed to state a starting orientation, rendering left and right meaningless… assuming Australians all face the same direction at dawn, or are stupid enough to stare at the sun at any given moment of their day in the first place, doesn’t help the point. The actual point they intended to make was that in Australia the path the sun traces through the sky is always to the north of your position, whereas for someone in America or Europe it’s to the south, but neither of these has the slightest thing to do with left and right, neither of which exists without a subjective orientation that cannot be assumed by the reader. Directions like North, South, East, and West are relative to the planet. Clockwise and anticlockwise are relative to the clock face. Left and right are relative to the observer’s subjective position. Talking about the sun’s position and arc in terms of left and right is acting like the universe is solipsocentric. Maybe only we who live on boats get this in our bones?

yawpitch 3y ago

If you’re facing towards the sun you’re rotating, facing west at dawn and east at dusk. If you’re above the Tropic of Cancer you’ll be rotating clockwise through facing south at noon… if you’re below the Tropic of Cancer you’ll be rotating anticlockwise through facing north at noon. If you’re between the Tropics you’re spin will be determined by the season… if you’re on the equator you’ll have spent half the year spinning clockwise, half spinning anti clockwise, and one very confusing day not spinning at all but pitching (or rolling, depending on your starting position). What won’t happen is that you start the day on one side of the equator, facing towards a pole which that east and dawn is on your left and, never changing your facing but proceeding to the other side of the equator, expect the sun to set on your left. The article implies that left and right flip when you pass the equator… they don’t. There’s no natural relationship between your hands position relative to the axis of your nose and the planet’s rotation relative to the sun.

mastazi 3y ago
If you are in Sydney at sunrise and you look towards the rising sun and keep looking in the same direction, after a while the sun will be to your left. If you are looking North, the sun moves from right to left. If you are looking South, the sun is behind you, so you're not looking at it. There is no direction you can look at, that lets you observe the sun moving from left to right. [1][2] If you are between the tropics, for example in Cairns, which is in Northern Queensland, then yes as you said depending on the time of the year, you could be looking South at the sun moving from left to right. But, only a small minority of the Australian population live North of the Tropic of Capricorn, and the above is true only during a certain period of the year. So I think that's beyond the point the OP is making... [1]: unless you place yourself upside down. [2]: I found another exception: if you are looking at the sun through a mirror
- yawpitch 3y ago
  The article didn’t make its point precisely because it failed to state a starting orientation, rendering left and right meaningless… assuming Australians all face the same direction at dawn, or are stupid enough to stare at the sun at any given moment of their day in the first place, doesn’t help the point. The actual point they intended to make was that in Australia the path the sun traces through the sky is always to the north of your position, whereas for someone in America or Europe it’s to the south, but neither of these has the slightest thing to do with left and right, neither of which exists without a subjective orientation that cannot be assumed by the reader. Directions like North, South, East, and West are relative to the planet. Clockwise and anticlockwise are relative to the clock face. Left and right are relative to the observer’s subjective position. Talking about the sun’s position and arc in terms of left and right is acting like the universe is solipsocentric. Maybe only we who live on boats get this in our bones?