Good morning Brent,
With my tongue or gnomon firmly in cheek, may I gently suggest that the
common view of the Northern Hemisphere on top is quite mistaken, and is a
confidence trick perpetuated by those in the Northern Hemisphere who have
never ventured south to see the wonderful sunny skies across southern
Africa, South America, Australia etc., the Milky Way, and of course, the
fabulous Southern Cross. If you ask anyone from south of the Equator, they
will tell you this! Our world and our dials are not "upside down", yours are
;-)))
Cheers, John
John Pickard
john.pick...@bigpond.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brent" <bren...@verizon.net>
To: "Sundial List" <sund...@rrz.uni-koeln.de>
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2011 2:00 AM
Subject: upside down world
Hello again;
For fun I removed my globe from its' frame and re-inserted it upside down.
Now Antarctica is at the top.
I suppose nothing has really changed except my point of view.
I notice that when I change south to north, east is now on my left as I
look north. This is disorienting to say the least. I suppose I should also
change east to west but then the sun would rise in the west and set in the
east!
I notice also that viewed from the top, the earth is now turning in a
clockwise direction. This makes more sense for time keeping devices that
have hands.
I think north and south, east and west, up and down, top and bottom are
arbitrary directions that could change if we wanted to.
However, the imaginary circle we trace in the air for describing clockwise
direction cannot change. Sure we can swap names but that circle we trace
identifies a direction of travel and will forever be the same direction.
Suppose I was in charge and I changed south to north and east to west.
Would our sundials all still work? Would it simply be a matter of changing
the NSEW labels or would the hour marks have to be flipped also?
Has anyone ever made an upside down sundial?
thanks;
brent
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