• UrPartnerInCrime@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      1 year ago

      OK well then by that logic it depends on which way your looking as a clock. A see-through clock would cause chaos by your logic.

      • Spuddaccino@reddthat.com
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        1 year ago

        The terms for “clockwise” and “Counterclockwise” originated long before clocks. Clockwise was originally called “Sunwise” and followed the movement of the shadow around a sundial.

        Counterclockwise was “widdershins”, from a Middle Low German phrase meaning “against the way.”

        We don’t use “earthwise” because from our perspective, the earth doesn’t rotate.

        • UrPartnerInCrime@sh.itjust.worksOP
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          1 year ago

          You know after thinking about this for a while, it actually just makes me want to call it earthwise more.

          And maybe I just have a diffent perspective, but I look up a lot and notice the stars moving while out on walk woth my dogs. Not in real time for anyone trying to start lol. But It’s continously in my mind that we’re on a spinning rock. And I’ve played enough NMS to realize that a planet can take perspective from space, but compasses go north and south. And if we’re going to debate on which way I would consider which to be right or wrong its moot, because whatever clockwise is earthwise will be opposite. So I just don’t get how I’m so wrong.

        • UrPartnerInCrime@sh.itjust.worksOP
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          1 year ago

          Well yeah, but I was trying to get across that we have established rules for how we view the world and it’s pretty set in stone that the earth turns in a leftward direction just as much as a clock turns in a rightward one.

  • 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘬
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    1 year ago

    Because in everyday life we can see the rotation of the clock hands but not the rotation of the earth.

      • 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘬
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        1 year ago

        So you say I need to know my orientation and position on earth and their orientation and position on earth just to tell someone in which direction I need to rotate something?

        • UrPartnerInCrime@sh.itjust.worksOP
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          1 year ago

          The earth spins on a leftward direction on the same plane it orbits the sun. Is that so hard to grasp? More hard than to teach everyone that clocks HAVE to spin in one direction?

  • nicklowbar@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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

  • Call me Lenny/Leni@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    My friend’s grandfather used to bet on horse racing all the time, and horses would go counterclockwise around the track no matter what track it was, so he’d say horsewise whenever he wanted to say counterclockwise.

    • Big P@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      Maybe we should say a lot of things in more logical ways. Unfortunately, language evolves naturally over time and that comes with these kind of oddities

  • ch00f@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Here’s what’ll really bake your noodle. The north end of a magnet points north which means that the north magnetic pole is actually the South Pole of the Earth’s magnet.