Do spheres have poles? Couldn’t any point on a sphere be a pole and the point directly opposite to it be the other pole? If they don’t have intrinsic poles, are Earth’s poles human-defined?

Question

Do spheres have poles? Couldn’t any point on a sphere be a pole and the point directly opposite to it be the other pole? If they don’t have intrinsic poles, are Earth’s poles human-defined?

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Answer 1

A sphere only has poles if it is rotating. The poles are the spots that ‘don’t move’ during rotation. If you can control the rotation entirely (like a ball in your hand) you can pick any spot as being the poles by adjusting the rotation accordingly. We cant change the way Earth rotates, so the poles remain the same