Hello
What fun! Methinks that the confusion arises because the earth is not a "plane" but a sphere. Mercator tried to project the sphere on to the plane and had curved lines of latitude. Another confusion is that there is more than one Halifax ;-) Andrew From: sundial [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Brent Sent: 15 September 2015 17:30 To: Frank Evans Cc: sundial Subject: Re: due east If I was in halifax at sunrise on the equinox and the earth stopped rotating and I walked due east (towards the sun) across the ocean I would end up in Southern Spain and not on my same latitude which is in Southern France. So I conclude that latitude lines are not east-west lines. Correct? thanks; brent On 9/15/2015 9:01 AM, Frank Evans wrote: Hi Brent and all, Compass directions that are pursued make spiral curves towards the poles, if north of east-west then towards the north pole, if south of east-west then towards the south pole. If east or west then they do neither but continue east-west. Try Googling "loxodromic curve". It's what you draw on a chart. Sailors call it a "rhumb line". Frank 55N 1W On 15/09/2015 15:10, Brent wrote: I'm confused maybe. I live in the northern hemishpere and anticipating the equinox on the 23rd. Supposedly the sun will rise due east. So if due east is a right angle from north south and I traveled due east I would not follow my line of latitude. I would get further and further south of my latitude the further I traveled. So either the lines of latitude are not east west lines or due east is not a straight line but curved. I suspect lines of latitude are not east west lines? They would work fine if the earth was not tilted, but it is. Wouldn't it make sense to coordinate the globe so lines of latitude (or call them something else) are straight and a right angle from north south? brent --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
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