tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Aug 08 00:34:29 1994

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Re: Compass



Joachim Deussen writes:
>How do we know, that the sun of the KHW rises the same direction as Sol
>does on earth? Is there any source STE or something else) that describes
>the rotation or other orbiting parameters of the KHW? If we see a mercator-
>projection of earth, we know, sun rises in the east or right of the map
>and it sets left or in the west. Couldn't it be just the opposite on
>the KHW?

No, because that is a fact about the map, not the territory.  "East" is by
definition a name for the direction in which the sun rises, and I believe
the convention among astronomers is that that is how the cardinal points
and their names are defined for all rotating astronomical objects: at any
point on the surface, east is the direction in which that point turns about
the axis.

-- Richard Kennaway, [email protected]




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