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[–] 27 points 2 years ago (16 children)

Well, for starters, that depends on which way you're looking at the earth.

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    [–] 16 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    Because who the hell knows by heart which way the earth turns

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    I mean, anyone who hikes often or likes astronomy. It's kind of important for navigation and orientation to know where the sun will rise and set.

    Are you telling me you don't ever imagine yourself on a huge ball spinning towards the sun in the morning?

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    [–] 10 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Some of us say anticlockwise instead

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  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago (5 children)

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

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    [–] 6 points 2 years ago* (5 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

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    [–] 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    The word you want is "widdershins".

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  • [–] [S] -5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Thank you. That's what this whole post is based on.

    Why does Big Ben get to decide which arbitrary way I say left turning?

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Clocks simply followed the direction of movement from the sundial (as seen in the Northern hemisphere).

    Nothing to do with "Big Ben" [sic].

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  • [–] [S] -5 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    The big Ben remark was a joke because people say big whatever controls things. Like big brother controlls the government. Big phama controls drugs. Well big clock controls what we call left and right turning thing. Big Ben is a big clock.

    Though you might be able to get the pun but sorry. Misjudged your intelligence

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Because you then have anti-earthwise, which just sounds like a climate disaster, or humanity itself.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Maybe I'm wrong, but maybe we should also say right and counterright. Tight and countertight. Open and counteropen.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years 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.

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