Eli5 How can one tell where south, north, east or west is without using a compass, looking at a map or already knowing?
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Let’s say society collapses tomorrow. From the ashes a warlord rises up and enslaves you. Being a quirky warlord of a new post apocalyptic society they decide they are a living god, and as everyone knows a living god needs a pyramid. Just like the pyramids of Egypt he wants the sides to point exactly north, south, east and west.
Now you could just accept that the sun rises in the east and work from that, but that’s not nearly precise enough for a god king’s pyramid. The north star points directly north so maybe you could find that. The only problem is that during the apocalypse the continents shifted around and now you’re in the southern hemisphere, the north star isn’t available. Times running out, the god king wants their pyramid and they’ve already killed the last three architects. So what do you do?
Well luckily there is a way to find the exact directions with a great deal of accuracy no matter where you are on earth.
Find some celestial object, it can be the moon, the sun, or any star.
Pick some comfortable spot that you don’t mind sitting at for a whole day.
Wait for the object to start to rise above the horizon. Grab a stick and stick it in the ground to mark this direction to where this object rose.
Now wait for about 12 hours for the object to set. (Perhaps read a lightly burned book, or maybe just sit back and take in the sight of the charred hellscape that was once earth)
Take another stick and mark the spot the object went down.
Now you have three points. The place you were sitting and looking from, the place of the first stick, and the place of the second stick. This makes an angle. If you draw a line cutting that angle in half it will point exactly north or south (Depending on what hemisphere you are in).
Now you’ve just got to build a pyramid, good luck.
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