Since we’re aimlessly floating in space with no real orientation, who first decided that the North Pole is “up” and the South Pole is “down” and not vice versa?

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Since we’re aimlessly floating in space with no real orientation, who first decided that the North Pole is “up” and the South Pole is “down” and not vice versa?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

It has to do with orientation of Maps. At first East was up as the rising Sun was the marker for orientation when traveling and making maps. This means it was the top of a Map. (That is also why Asia was called the Orient).

Once magnetic compasses were invented magnetic north became the orientation on maps used by those in the Northern Hemisphere. Since most of the human populace, and specifically all of Europe lives in the Northern Hemisphere that is what most people view as up on a map. This opinion was carried by Europe to its colonies, even those in the Southern Hemisphere.

So once we started making globes it was logical that up on the map meant up in the room for the globe and so the globe was mounted such that the north pole was at the top. This then carried over to mapping the Solar system as a whole once science advanced enough to start doing that.

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