OK you look at Earth from the North Pole it spins counter clockwise.
You look at Earth from South Pole it spins clockwise.
So there must a point when you look at it side on
that it spins between clockwise and counter clockwise. (mid-clockwise)
This is where you will find the East and West poles.
I just want to know where they are.
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Originally posted by greenpawn34Something is quite fishy with the logic. It implies that if you were to traverse the globe perpendicular to the rotation of the earth from south to north or visa-versa, there would exist at some point in the journey the appearance that the earth would not be rotating at all. Obviously thats not possible.
OK you look at Earth from the North Pole it spins counter clockwise.
You look at Earth from South Pole it spins clockwise.
So there must a point when you look at it side on
that it spins between clockwise and counter clockwise. (mid-clockwise)
This is where you will find the East and West poles.
I just want to know where they are.
This obviously is intertangled with a subtle change in perception of the "clockface" the human mind looks over if not careful.
The position of the "poles" of a rotating object is where the axis of rotation meets the surface of the object.
This means that there are only two geographic poles on the planet.
I'm not sure why the north pole is called the "north" pole, probably some arbitary definition.
I do know that the poles of other planets are defined relative to earth's poles. Human egotism at its best.
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Originally posted by greenpawn34Urg. I have a feeling that I'm being made a fool of, but I'll answer as if you seriously did not know this anyway.
OK you look at Earth from the North Pole it spins counter clockwise.
You look at Earth from South Pole it spins clockwise.
So there must a point when you look at it side on
that it spins between clockwise and counter clockwise. (mid-clockwise)
This is where you will find the East and West poles.
No, that's not where you will find any pole at all. That's where you will find the entirety of the equator. From a geological and/or geometrical point of view, no single point on the equator is different, directionally speaking, from any other. Nor is any point on the arctic circle different from the others. All points on any parallel is different to any other point on the same parallel. Only the two poles are unique, because at those points the parallels are reduced to those single points.
From the earth's POV, east and west are directions, not points. The existence of the Greenwich meridian is entirely for political and navigational convenience; it has no basis in physics or mathematics. It's just been picked, semi-randomly, by humans.
Richard
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Originally posted by greenpawn34Ah, well, that's even easier. All four poles were far out in the Ocean, the North one beyond Ultima Thule, the South one the other side of Africa, the West one outside the Gates of Hercules, and the East one somewhere off the coast of Cathay.
OK I understand that.
But in the olden days before Newton, everyone thought the Universe
went around the planet so then the planet must have stood still.
So before Newton somehow started spinning the planet where
were the East and West Poles?
Richard
Originally posted by greenpawn34I have a digital clock. And the Earth doesn't spin like mine at all.
OK you look at Earth from the North Pole it spins counter clockwise.
You look at Earth from South Pole it spins clockwise.
So there must a point when you look at it side on
that it spins between clockwise and counter clockwise. (mid-clockwise)
This is where you will find the East and West poles.
I just want to know where they are.
I guess proper clocks go clockwise because the
sundial goes clockwise.
I have often suspected that the digital clock/watch
does not keep the correct time.
I conducted my own experiment.
I went around my work place and asked everyone
who wore a digital watch for the time.
And everytime I got a different answer.
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Originally posted by greenpawn34As far as I know, you are quite correct.
I guess proper clocks go clockwise because the
sundial goes clockwise.
I have often suspected that the digital clock/watch
does not keep the correct time.
I conducted my own experiment.
I went around my work place and asked everyone
who wore a digital watch for the time.
And everytime I got a different answer.
You should've come to me. I have a watch with both a digital and an analogue display, and the digital one does not show the same time as the analogue one. It isn't even within a few minutes. (And yes, this is intentional.)
Richard