SSW@beBee

Sensational Start to the Week at beBee: SSW@beBee

I have a hive called, “What words mean to me.”

I have now added the following feature to this hive; every Monday, I am posting writings related to the word “senses”. This week I offer a discussion based on the sense of place; where am I?

I often look at how sunrises and sunsets contribute to our sense of time as linear. Makes sense from the perspective of watching the sun go up and seeing it come down. Yet in reality, we live on a spherical, rotating planet which revolves around the sun. In this way, we are doing the moving, not the sun.

This leads to two questions:

1. Why don't people walk upside-down on the bottom of the Earth?

Kristine Spekkens writes:

"Remember that the Earth is a sphere, like a giant ball: so there is no "up" or "down", since a sphere is symmetric. That is, it looks the same no matter what way you look at it. So, people in Australia have just as much right to call themselves "up" as people in the Northern Hemisphere do!
But more to the point, the force that keeps everything on the Earth from falling off it is gravity: it's the pull exerted by one object on another because of its mass. For objects like the Earth, the force exerted by the Earth's mass pulls objects in the direction of the Earth's centre. This means that wherever you are on the Earth, the force is always "down" into the ground. That's what keeps everything on Earth "right-side up", even those in Australia!"

In other words, it’s all a matter of perspective; a local perspective, where the zenith position lies.

" "Above" means in the vertical direction opposite to the apparent gravitational force at that location. The opposite direction, i.e. the direction in which gravity pulls, is toward the nadir. The zenith is the "highest" point on the celestial sphere (meaning it is the farthest up from the gravitation force.)' -  Wikipedia

For someone living in the northern hemisphere, the zenith position in the southern hemisphere seems to be "down". But for a person living in the southern hemisphere, the zenith is what he/she will call "up".

2a. How “true” is the True North?

Amanda Briney writes: 

"Magnetic declination, also called magnetic variation, is defined as the angle between compass north and true north at a point on the Earth. Compass north is the direction shown on the north end of a compass needle while true north is the actual direction on the Earth's surface pointing toward the geographic North Pole. Magnetic declination changes based on one's location on the globe and as a result it is very important to surveyors, map makers, navigators and anyone using a compass to find their direction such as hikers….An easy and often inexpensive tool to use for navigation is a compass. Compasses operate by having a small magnetized needle that is placed on a pivot so that it can rotate. The Earth's magnetic field places a force on the needle, causing it to move. The compass needle will rotate until it aligns itself with the Earth's magnetic field. In some areas this alignment is the same as true north but in others magnetic declination causes the alignment to be off and the compass must be adjusted to avoid getting lost."

2b. How has this influenced map making?

Xanthe Webb Aintablian writes:

"Most modern-day maps typically show an orientation with north at the top of the two-dimensional depiction. In other eras, different directions at the top were more prevalent, and all directions have been used by different societies and cultures to depict our world. The biggest factors that contribute to north being commonly placed at the top of a map include the invention of the [compass].
Different Orientations
Most early maps, before the wide-spread use of the compass, placed east at the top. This is generally thought to be due to the fact that the sun rises in the east. It was the most consistent directional maker.
Many cartographers show what they want to be the focus at the top of the map, and therefore, influence the orientation of the map. Many early Arab and Egyptian cartographers placed south at the top of the map because, having most of the world they knew of to the north of them, it drew the most attention to their area. Many early settlers of North America created maps with a west-east orientation that resulted from the direction that they primarily traveled and explored. Their own viewpoint greatly altered the orientation of their maps."

"The above discussion gives me a better understanding as to how our sense of direction, our choices of how we navigate our life and where we see ourselves, are determined. What we sense things to be is often not related to how we perceive things to be. Are we living in our own, self-constructed caves of Plato?" - SJ

Image credit: Pesticide Action Network

My Call To Action is my invitation. I invite you to send me a description of what makes sense to you.