Weird questions in the middle of the night: Part II

1235»

Comments

  • markymark550
    markymark550 Columbia, SC Posts: 5,221
    mace1229 said:
    markymark550 said:
    brianlux said:
    Main question: Why is one pole of the earth considered the top of the earth or "north pole" and the other is considered the bottom of the earth or "south pole"?

    Subsidiary questions: I mean, really, who decided that? OK, the earth spins around the sun, but who decided which end of the sun is up and which end is down? Does the solar system have a top and a bottom? Or the galaxy? Or the universe? What if we've had it all wrong and are looking at all that stuff upside down? Who is the wise guy who decided all that?
    COME ON! I need to know this things!  :anguished:  realmadrealmad
    :lol:

    If you're asking, why is the direction called "north", the etymology of the word roughly translates as "to the left of the rising sun".

    As to why "north" = "top", I think that's arbitrary. I would venture a guess that with compasses pointing north, it's an easy reference for navigation and cartography. If you were holding a compass and a map, you'd want the north reference at the top of the paper, so over time north became synonymous with top. Again, that is just my guess.
    This made me think of this option some more, and I realized a compass actually points both north and south. The needle is double sided.  We just paint the north end a big bright red so it jumps out, but a south-pointing compass would be just as easy, just reverse the colors. Turns out the Chinese did make a south aligning compass thousands of years ago before north became standard. 
    Interesting. With China being in the northern hemisphere, I would have thought they'd go with a north aligning compass.

    In terms of European explorers/cartographers, your theory makes a lot of sense. It's probably a mixture of both our ideas along with some other geographic, social, and/or political reasons we haven't thought of.

    Interesting thought experiment though. I'm such a big nerd that I'll probably wind up doing more research on this.
  • crookedcross
    crookedcross Right Near Da Beach, Boiii Posts: 1,546
    edited April 11
    Jason P said:
    When did society take garage doors opener's for granted?  You used to have to be a Lord with peasants and lackeys to open a garage door.  I don't even need a wizard or warlock anymore.  Just some 120V power and a magical button. 

    It would be nice to be able to lash someone when it doesn't work ... oh well
    I work with some pretty powerful radars and radios. Every now and then there's a dummy who sets 'em up wrong and make whole towns' magical buttons no workie (temporarily). Then garage door companies on the island get pummeled with service calls. 
  • mace1229
    mace1229 Posts: 9,853
    We didn't have a garage door opener growing up. We were about the only ones on the block that didn't. I thought we were poor because we were always the only ones on the block without something. My dad just saved his money well so he can enjoy retirement.
    Anyway, it was a heavy wooden door, I have no idea how much it weighed. But it wasn't;t too bad opening because it was spring assisted. But every few years a spring would blow out and it was near impossible. And even more impossible was getting a new spring back on!
  • brianlux
    brianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 43,665
    mace1229 said:
    We didn't have a garage door opener growing up. We were about the only ones on the block that didn't. I thought we were poor because we were always the only ones on the block without something. My dad just saved his money well so he can enjoy retirement.
    Anyway, it was a heavy wooden door, I have no idea how much it weighed. But it wasn't;t too bad opening because it was spring assisted. But every few years a spring would blow out and it was near impossible. And even more impossible was getting a new spring back on!

    When I was growing up, we actually had five garage door openers that all worked quite well.  My pop, my mom, my brother, my sister, and me! :lol:
    "It's a sad and beautiful world"
    -Roberto Benigni

  • JeBurkhardt
    JeBurkhardt Posts: 5,337
    mace1229 said:
    We didn't have a garage door opener growing up. We were about the only ones on the block that didn't. I thought we were poor because we were always the only ones on the block without something. My dad just saved his money well so he can enjoy retirement.
    Anyway, it was a heavy wooden door, I have no idea how much it weighed. But it wasn't;t too bad opening because it was spring assisted. But every few years a spring would blow out and it was near impossible. And even more impossible was getting a new spring back on!
    We had our living room share a wall with our garage in the house I grew up in. It had a heavy wood door as well. One of springs broke while I was sitting on the living room couch and it sounded like a small bomb went off. You are right, getting the new spring on was a chore.

Categories