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How come we say counterclockwise and not earthwise? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 year ago by UrPartnerInCrime@sh.itjust.works to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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[–] nicklowbar@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Because clocks are intuitive, the earth's rotation is not. We've agreed long ago that clocks spin to the right, and that convention has continued to this day. Analog clocks are now a regular occurrence everywhere in modern society. Up is 12, down is 6, Clock spins to the right. Ezpz.

The earth's rotation, while a constant, isn't easy to intuit. Depending on your frame of reference the earth spins to the right, to the left, ahead of you or behind you, or some combination of these local cardinal directions. In addition, there is no objective "up" in space. The most common map projections only orient north as "up" because of eurocentric bias when choosing such an orientation.

So nah, earthwise makes no sense for angular velocity unless you also want to mandate north = up