Cardinal Directions for Flat Earth

Any one have any ideas on a set of cardinal directions(NESW) for flat earth? With "north" now being a central point and "south" being the directon away from this point I think they need some revising. So, would someone like to put a compass rose on our flat earth map?

Any one have any ideas on a set of cardinal directions(NESW) for flat earth? With "north" now being a central point and "south" being the directon away from this point I think they need some revising. So, would someone like to put a compass rose on our flat earth map?

I don't see why they need revising.  I also don't particularly feel like making an FE map and putting a compass rose on it, though I will if you insist.  Though perhaps I will first insist that you put a compass rose on a globe.  Somewhere on the northern hemisphere will do admirably.  If, once you have done that, you still don't see how to do it on the FE map, I will make a picture.

If you really want other names for the directions, how about

North = Hubwards
South = Rimwards
West = Turnwise (edit: thanks HiveLord for pointing this out)
East = Widdershins

I occassionally use this terminology in my posts, when I want to differentiate FE navigation from RE navigation.

-Erasmus

that doesn't make sense if west is sunwards, because the sun moves. And if the earth is flat, isn't the rim all around us?

And if the earth is flat, isn't the rim all around us?

Yes.

that doesn't make sense if west is sunwards, because the sun moves.

The sun travels west.

And if the earth is flat, isn't the rim all around us?

Righto.


--Chal

that doesn't make sense if west is sunwards, because the sun moves.

As Chal says, I would call west "sunwards" because that's the direction the sun is moving in -- not (necessarily) the direction you go to get towards the sun.  You could also call it "clockwise".

-Erasmus

Or 'Turnwise'

Or 'Turnwise'

Oh yeah yeah, that's way better!

*editting old post*

-Erasmus

                       ^
                        |
                   <---  --->
                        |
                         


I was asking if anyone wanted to give a name to four points on the FE map such as in this crude configuration.

Shouldn't there really only be North and South, with East and West now out of the picture?

Shouldn't there really only be North and South, with East and West now out of the picture?

No.  Inward would be north, outward would be south.  But what if you're travelling but not getting any closer to either the north pole or the ice wall (i.e. along a line of latitude around the north pole)?  You're moving, so there needs to be a direction.  Like Erasmus said, clockwise = west, counterclockwise = east.

So here's an FE map with a compass rose on it.  Actually, so you wouldn't get confused or try to move the rose around incorrectly, I've also shown you how it's meant to be moved by making three copies of the rose.



The letters stand for the direction names as given in my/HiveLord's previous posts.

-Erasmus

meh, I was looking to put only one rose somehow on the map. But I can't think of a logical way. Like if you split FE into four quarants, how could you name them?

The only difference between that picture and the real directions would be that the "Turnwise" and "Widdershins" directions would not be straight.  They would follow concentric circles around the pole of the earth.  But that would maybe be too much of a pain to draw, and I think the picture works.

meh, I was looking to put only one rose somehow on the map. But I can't think of a logical way.

Consider the problem of projecting the surface of the Earth onto a plane.  The Mercator projection maps parallels to horizontals, lines of longitude to verticals.  Thus you can place "just one rose" on the map.

However, other projections do not have this property that, for example, north is always vertical.  On a polar stereographic map, you cannot place "just one compass rose".  In fact, the FE map of the hubwards annulus looks similar to a polar stereographic map of the northern hemisphere.

Like if you split FE into four quarants, how could you name them?

Depends on how you split them.  If you draw two orthogonal diameters, you could label them, in widdershins direction, "I", "II", "III", and "IV".  Turns out this notation is already used by mathematicians to refer to the quadrants of any Euclidean plane.

-Erasmus

The cartesian coordinate plane (you could call it the eucildean plane) can have one compass rose:
Y+
Y-
X+
X-

A better example would be the polar coordinate plane, in wich points are expressed by thier magnitude from the center and rotational degrees.

I just noticed the paradox of how man has believed the Earth to be flat for centuries, yet used the cardinal directions NSEW, which dont apply on a flat earth.

Sure they do.

North is poiinting towards the center of the earth. No matter where you are, you can point towards the center of the earth. Your compass does this.

South is pointing directly away from the center of the earth. No matter where you are, you can point away from the center of the earth.

West is following the circumference of a circle centered on the center of the earth and of radius equal to the distance you are from the center of the earth, in the clockwise direction. This is true regardless of your location on the earth.

West is following the circumference of a circle centered on the center of the earth and of radius equal to the distance you are from the center of the earth, in the counter-clockwise direction. This is true regardless of your location on the earth.

How can you say the cardinal directions North, South, East, and West don't apply to a flat earth?

How can you say the cardinal directions North, South, East, and West don't apply to a flat earth[...]

...especially since they were used on the flat Earth first? :?


--Chal

I just noticed the paradox of how man has believed the Earth to be flat for centuries, yet used the cardinal directions NSEW, which dont apply on a flat earth.

I've always been curious: which centuries were these?

-Erasmus

and 100 bc to 1600 ad or so.

and i was referring to this thread being about how cardinal directions dont apply in the normal sense on a flat earth

and 100 bc to 1600 ad or so.

I'm pretty sure that for all of the centuries you list, many people -- probably most people -- believed the Earth to be a sphere.

and i was referring to this thread being about how cardinal directions dont apply in the normal sense on a flat earth

It's still not clear to me how they don't apply, or what the normal sense is exactly.  By that I mean I can't come up with a formal description of what the normal sense is.

-Erasmus