Yes. Maps always have up as north. So just hold a map in front of you, and forward direction is north. Easy.
One time I called 911 because I was following a drunk driver that had collided with multiple vehicles and kept driving. The operator asked me what direction so I looked at my maps app and it said I was going west so I told them west and they said “Sir that street doesn’t run west.” I was speechless after that.
At one point in my childhood, my dad made the comment, “Women don’t know compass directions.” I took offense to that and made a point to learn them to prove him wrong.
I felt vindicated in high school when he was coming to pick me up from a friend’s house and said, “I’m at the gas station. Do I go left or right?” I told him there were several gas stations on the way, and asked which direction he was facing to figure out which one he was by. He couldn’t tell me and finally hung up on me in a huff.
Coloradans be like “just look at the mountains smh”
Left.
The Sun rises in the East and sets in the west.
With East on your right and west on your left you would be facing north.
You can tell which side of the equator you are on by the way water swirls. Northern Hemisphere water drains clockwise. If water draining has no spin then you’re on the equator.
Sometimes the moss on trees is enough of an indicator, as moss growing on only one side of a tree means no sunlight reaches it and the moss faces the direction opposite of the equator.
Join us next time for a lesson on Star Charts.
The water thing is a myth. Any body of water you can actively watch drain is influenced by the shape of the reservoir and direction the water is added to it.
Hmm
Looked it up and you might be right. But believing you at face value would also be the same fault that lead to to this myth’s spread.
To be fair I had to look it up too. Seems the Coriolis effect COULD impact a perfectly still container of water that was opened suddenly, but other forces are going to be significantly more impactful on a small body of water.
What about the videos recorded in Ecuador, where the same reservoir is drained on both sides of the equator and the water spins in different directions?
Edited to add the link since other users asked for it down in the replies: https://youtu.be/4IIVfoDuVIw
Edit2: check the replies below, the video is good at debunking this. But it’s not super easy to notice
Idk why you’re being downvoted for this comment but it’s actually a really cool sleight of hand trick where the guy pouring the water gives it a small swirl in the direction they want the water to drain.
A lot of people may not like him but Mark Rober did a video about it: https://youtu.be/M7-h3FO-KKo?t=729&si=DoYwXCutiNvF_WcZ
You might have to provide that link if you want them to listen.
That’s a street performer ripping off some tourists.
😂
What? You don’t have an internal compass that keeps you oriented? For some reason I seem to be a lucky person that just knows which compass direction I’m going no matter where I am. And it’s a very weird and frightening feeling if I do get disoriented. I had some pain meds after a surgery that did that to me. Flushed them damn things down the toilet after the first 2 I took.
And it’s a very weird and frightening feeling if I do get disoriented.
I know what you mean, there has been a couple of times in my life where my internal idea of direction has been turned off course and it is a very weird feeling indeed trying to reconcile the direction you internally believe you’re facing against the different direction a map or compass is telling you is actually true.
As a kid I also once spent a weekend in Melbourne feeling somewhat disconcerted due to not being able to get a sense of direction. I’d never been there before and flew in on an overcast day which never ended up letting up until I flew out so never ended up getting my bearings while we were down there (didn’t help that this was before the smartphone era so maps weren’t available at the drop of a hat).
That sounds really nice. I’m sure I could develop the skill, but I have to check the Sun
I’m with you. Short of that one day dead noon Hawaii or the middle of a forest I feel like there are clues to approximate North and South even when I’m discombobulated.
Or just ask them which is west and they can point you towards it? Your not a compass needle lol, what is that assumption.
If it’s before noon: Go away from the sun.
If it’s after noon: Go toward the sun.
If it’s night… Wait for morning, and go away from the sun.
If it’s night and you can see both the Southern Cross and the Pointers it’s pretty trivial to determine south; if you’re in the northern hemisphere you get it even easier with Polaris to mark north.
Instructions unclear, I’m at the north pole
If you’re at the pole, just walk due south.
The moon would like a word
There’s no idiom for which way the moon rises and sets 🤷🏻♂️.
My initial thought when reading your comment was a response about differentiation of both hemispheres, but the way you wrote it was actually quite clever, so kudos for that! :D
*Advice not applicable if you are north or south of a given latitude.
stuck somewhere where the sun doesn’t set for like a month
Do… Do I wait?
Haha, yes there’s that extreme. However that effect is a gradient. You start to notice it north of the 60th parallel (Canada where the bulk of the population lives) but it’s only slight. In winter the sun is just slightly south of the middle of the sky.
Here in Campbell River BC we are at the 50th parallel, and on Saturday at Noon (we are out of DST now so we are talking true noon) the sun was to the direct south, 45 degrees to the horizon. It rises and sets… but to the SE, S and SW.
Opposite to the east.
If I learned anything in geography class than that west is on the left
And North is in space
I have problems telling right from left. At least I’m the moment, if I take my time I can tell.
But I almost always know my cardinal directions
Do you “write” with your “right” hand? That’s how I remember.
Like I said repeatedly. If I get to think about it I know what side is what. It’s only in the moment when I falter
If you extend your thumb and first finger, the L shape that is the correct way around is on your left hand.
Yeah I know when I have time to think about it.
It’s just when people say: ‘go left here’ or me throng to indicate direction in a split second that my change of getting it right reduced to 50%. My brain doesn’t grok that left right isn’t absolute but related to orientation.
Just remember that port is a 4 letter word and so is left. So left is port and right is starboard.
What helped me as a kid is imagine to write. That’s my left hand and than I know which is which without thinking too consciously (in case you’re right handed, it’s the other way around obviously).
But interesting that you know absolute directions easily. That’s a cultural thing actually. I think Australian Aborigines will say things like “my western foot hurts” because it’s more intuitive for them that way.
If I think for it for s second I know, I’ll think about my dominant hand too (although my dominant feet is on the opposite side so I don’t have a clear dominant side).
Yeah the aboriginal method seems way more intuitive to me, yet it probably won’t replace the left right system anytime soon :p
All roads lead to East New Westersouth.
Your phone is a compass
I don’t know why, but the phone compass is always so shit.
I think it depends on how you hold it.
That’s what I said
It’s easy. When you imagine south as a north being on the top then west is on the east side from it.
Great. I’m laying in bed, and now I’m lost. Thanks.
