why is north "up" ?

misterPK · 21 Oct 2010 at 16:57

I saw a road atlas once which also had a south at the top section for people who wanted to orientate the map but couldnt read upside down.

PK!

thedoc46 · 21 Oct 2010 at 17:15

kwerk said:
Why are maps oriented the way they are? Why didn't they do it the other way round with the south pole at the top? We're floating in SPACE what difference does it make.

Why don't people say STF 'Down' instead of STFU ?

Luke · 21 Oct 2010 at 17:49

Ice On Fire said:
Wrong thread?

No, it's just this kind of pointless post is normally the result of someone spamming to get into the MM.

Priapus · 21 Oct 2010 at 18:11

But he has over 300 posts or whatever it takes to get in there?

Moeks · 21 Oct 2010 at 18:16

bsoltan said:
Snippety Snip

Funny you should mention that, that episode of the West Wing sprang to mind as soon as I read the thread title. I was going to say, North is 'up' because the Mercator projection standard says that it is. And we do after all have to have a set standard for this sort of thing, or chaos would reign.

Biohazard · 21 Oct 2010 at 18:22

thedoc46 said:
Why don't people say STF 'Down' instead of STFU ?

Because your mouth is generally down/open when making noise.

So 'shut it up'.

Quite evident no?

Luke · 21 Oct 2010 at 18:40

Ice On Fire said:
But he has over 300 posts or whatever it takes to get in there?

Exactly.

SexyGreyFox · 21 Oct 2010 at 18:45

Deadbeat said:
OP doesn't appear to have responded since everybody started laughing at his stupidity. Shame.

Why is he stupid?
I thought it was a valid question and being into cartography I asked the same question many moons ago.

I reckon maps ended up like they did because someone placed a thin piece of metal on water and it pointed upwards and always in the same direction.
Those coordinates became NSEW and it made sense to draw the maps facing upwards like the compass.

V4NT0M · 21 Oct 2010 at 20:05

This thread has made me want to buy a globe for accurate representation of size...

Spec me a globe!

Cybermyk · 21 Oct 2010 at 20:32

Macro · 21 Oct 2010 at 21:23

Moeks · 21 Oct 2010 at 21:34

Athanor: that's brilliant, I laughed a lot

Mat · 21 Oct 2010 at 21:54

wordy said:
I've just had a StarBar.

LOL

[FnG]magnolia · 21 Oct 2010 at 22:15

Also, magnets. How do they work?

Deadbeat · 21 Oct 2010 at 23:21

[FnG]magnolia;17623264 said:
Also, magnets. How do they work?

Space magic. Fact.

nydryl · 21 Oct 2010 at 23:26

Why not? You need some standard orientation or maps would be a bit difficult to interpret.

Dolph · 22 Oct 2010 at 00:13

North is up because South is down. Simples.

Vonhelmet · 22 Oct 2010 at 00:39

Convention.