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Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:54:25 -0600
From: "Strickert, Rick" <rstrickert@signaturescience.com>
To: Forum for Physics Educators <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu>
Subject: Re: [Phys-l] Is something wrong here?????
> ...
> If, at the North/South Pole, one moves south/north in a
> direction between the lines of 0 to +180 deg longitude one is
> travelling (south/north) west, and if one moves in a
> direction between the lines of +180 to +360 (0) deg
> longitude, one is travelling (south/north) east.
Even if this were a generally accepted convention, it doesn't
address the original question: how can you go SOUTHeast of the
SOUTH Pole? The answer is, of course, you can't. The original
newspaper writer made a mistake. There's no point in trying to
understand something that is simply wrong.
Besides, does no one remember the old joke:
"A man walks a mile north, a mile west, and a mile south,
and finds himself back in camp. What color is the bear?"
The answer, of coruse, is "white" because it's a polar bear. The man
started from the South Pole where EVERY direction is north, and walking
west meant that he never got further than a mile from the South Pole
before turning south.
Now while it's true that you _can_ specify directions at the South
Pole, e.g., by identifying a particular line of longitude, you can't
specify a precise direction by giving a name on a compass. All
directions are north.
It's a mistake. Let it die.
_________________
Christopher M. Gould 213-740-1101 Dept. of Physics & Astronomy
gould@usc.edu Univ. of Southern California
http://physics.usc.edu/~gould/ Los Angeles, CA 90089-0484
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