- May 24th, 2024, 6:20 am
#462732
Do north and south, east and west really exist? Aren't they just human conventions. If so, then if the first maps of the world had been drawn by people in the Southern hemisphere, Antarctica probably would have been positioned at the top instead of at the bottom of the map. Try flipping a map, or better, a globe. Now imagine an alien approaching Earth from another galaxy and imagine the alien’s view as he approach Earth with what we call the South Pole dead ahead. The alien will be seeing the earth for the first time and will not have the impression he is seeing the earth upside down. So aren't north and south, east and west, forward and backward, up and down all just relative to us on Earth and dependent on our points of view or frame of reference?
And what about left and right? On earth, east and west will change from your right to your left side depending on which direction you are facing, but your left and right hands remain your left and your right hands. So our left and our right are not identical to east and west. Try superimposing your hands – you can’t get them to look the same no matter how you try to rotate of flip them. As LuckyR mentioned, there are enantiomers which are objects which cannot be superposed on their mirror images.
So I’d say that objective left and right, unlike north and south, east and west, up and down and backwards and forwards, do exist. However, if you were a perfectly spherical being with no surface markings, and able to spin in any direction on any axis, you would be achiral - you could be superimposed on your mirror image and left and right would have no meaning.
La Gaya Scienza