how did they decide north to be north originally.
In: Earth Science
There are two parts to this question. Why is the north “north” and why is it called north.
Well simply put, due to magnetic fields, when you let a magnetically attuned piece of metal chose a direction by itself (like putting it on a piece of wood on water) it’ll always try to point in the same certain direction. As a result, people decided to give it a name and use that for direction. You got a tool that for some reason always point at the same thing. It’s wonderful for directions.
Before using that, it was simply the direction the sun never went. or went on noon (depending on the hemisphere). They used the sun to create a few direction: where it wake, where it set, and where it’s the highest.
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