Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Addendum to "Do you know which way is up?"

In an earlier post that I published recently, I suggested that if you were lying on the ground with your head pointing to the east, if someone told you to look up, would you look straight ahead toward the ceiling or toward the east? I suggested that you look toward the east to be correct, but I also have another concept about this to suggest.

Let's say that you stand up after testing the previous suggestion. If you again look toward your eyebrows, then east would be up toward the sky, west would be down into the earth, and north and south would be blended into one another as all of the space around us. So technically, north and south AND east would be blurred together in the horizon.

This idea suggests that the idea of "west" is virtually impossible, unless you use the term to keep you grounded. For example, if you decided to turn in cartwheels, if your head is considered up in comparison to your feet, you would need to be grounded for only one-fourth of the time it takes to complete the cartwheel.

This could be an intelligent, fun and logical argument for children to use with their parents who want to ground them for their behaviour.

1 comment:

FletcherDodge said...

Actually, you're changing frame of reference and orientation.

If I were lying face skyward on the ground with my head pointing east and you told me to look up, I would turn my head to the right and look toward the north (north being "up" on a map).