The four
cardinal directions or
cardinal points are
northNorth is one of the four cardinal directions, specifically the direction that, in Western culture, is treated as the fundamental direction:* North is used to define all other directions....
,
southSouth is one of the cardinal directions and is opposite to the north.By Western convention, the bottom side of a map is south; the southern direction has azimuth or bearing of 180°....
,
eastEast is a direction in geography. It is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points, opposite of west and at right angles to north and south. East is the direction toward which the Earth rotates about its axis, and therefore the general direction from which the Sun appears to rise...
, and
westWest is most commonly a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.West is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points...
, commonly denoted by their initials - N, S, E, W. They are mostly used for
geographicGeography is the study of the Earth and its lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
orientation on
EarthEarth is the third planet from the Sun. It is the fifth largest of the eight planets in the solar system, and the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in terms of diameter, mass and density...
but may be calculated anywhere on a rotating
astronomical bodyAstronomical objects are significant physical entities, associations or structures which current science has confirmed to exist in outer space. This does not necessarily mean that more current science will not disprove their existence. Some astronomical objects, such as Themis and Neith are, in...
. North and south point toward the
geographical poleA geographical pole is either of the two points—the north pole and the south pole—on the surface of a rotating planet where the axis of rotation meets the surface of the body...
s defined by the axis of
rotationA rotation is a movement of an object in a circular motion. A two-dimensional object rotates around a center of rotation. A three-dimensional object rotates around a line called an axis. If the axis of rotation is within the body, the body is said to rotate upon itself, or spin—which implies...
, such that the body appears to rotate
counter-clockwiseA clockwise motion is one that proceeds 'like the clock's hands': from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back to the top. In a mathematical sense, a circle defined parametrically in a positive Cartesian plane by the equations x = sin t and y = cos t is traced clockwise as...
when viewed from above the north pole. East and west are at
right angleIn geometry and trigonometry, a right angle is an angle of 90 degrees, corresponding to a quarter turn . It can be defined as the angle such that twice that angle amounts to a half turn, or 180°....
s to north and south, with east being in the direction of rotation and west being directly opposite. Intermediate points between the four cardinal directions form the
points of the compassBoxing the compass is the action of naming all thirty-two principal points of the compass in clockwise order. Such names, formed by the initials of the cardinal directions and their intermediate ordinal directions, are accepted internationally, even though they have their origin in the English...
. The intermediate directions are north-east (NE), north-west (NW), south-west (SW), and south-east (SE).
On Earth, upright observers facing north will have south behind them, east on their
rightThe most common relative directions are left, right, forward, backward, up, and down. No absolute direction corresponds to any of the relative directions. This is a consequence of the translational invariance of the laws of physics: nature, loosely speaking, behaves the same no matter what...
, and west on their left. Most devices and methods for orientation therefore operate by finding north first, although any other direction is equally valid, if it can be reliably located. Several of these devices and methods are described below.
The Sun
The position of the
SunThe Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 99.86% of the Solar System's mass....
in the sky can be used for orientation if the general time of day is known. In the morning, the Sun
risesSunrise is the instant at which the upper edge of the Sun appears above the horizon in the east. Sunrise should not be confused with dawn, which is the point at which the sky begins to lighten, some time before the sun itself appears, ending twilight...
in the east and tracks upwards. In the evening it
setsSunset is the daily disappearance of the sun below the horizon as a result of the Earth's rotation. The atmospheric conditions created by the setting of the sun, occurring before and after it disappears below the horizon, are also commonly referred to as "sunset".In astronomy the time of sunset is...
in the west. In the middle of the day it is to the south for viewers in the
Northern HemisphereThe Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of the equator—the word hemisphere literally means 'half sphere'. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...
and the north for those in the
Southern HemisphereThe Southern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is south of the equator—the word hemisphere literally means 'half ball'...
. This method works less well closer to the
equatorThe equator is the intersection of the Earth's surface with the plane perpendicular to the Earth's axis of rotation and containing the Earth's center of mass. In simpler language, it is an imaginary line on the Earth's surface equidistant from the North Pole and South Pole that divides the Earth...
(ie between the
Tropic of CancerThe Tropic of Cancer, or the Northern tropic, is one of five major degree measures or major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. It is the northmost latitude at which the sun can appear directly overhead at noon...
and the
Tropic of CapricornThe Tropic of Capricorn, or Southern tropic, is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. It lies 23° 26′ 22″ south of the equator, and marks the most southerly latitude at which the sun can appear directly overhead at noon...
) since, in the northern hemisphere, the sun may be directly overhead or even to the north in summer. Conversely, at low
latitudeLatitude, usually denoted by the Greek letter phi gives the location of a place on Earth north or south of the equator. Lines of Latitude are the imaginary horizontal lines shown running east-to-west on maps that run either north or south of the equator...
s in the southern hemisphere the sun may be to the south of the observer in summer. (See
seasonA season is a division of the year, marked by changes in weather.Seasons result from the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the plane of revolution...
s and
solsticeA solstice is an astronomical event that happens twice each year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is most inclined toward or away from the Sun, causing the Sun's apparent position in the sky to reach its northernmost or southernmost extreme...
for more on this).
Therefore, a more accurate fix can be made if the time of year and approximate latitude are factored in. It should also be noted that, due to the Earth's
axial tiltIn astronomy, axial tilt is the angle between an object's rotational axis and a line perpendicular to its orbital plane. The angle is measured between the line perpendicular to object's orbital plane and object's rotational axis passing through north pole at which the planet appears to rotate...
, no matter what your location, there are only two days each year when the sun rises precisely due east. These days are the
equinoxAn equinox occurs twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun, the Sun being vertically above a point on the Equator...
es. On all other days, depending on the time of year, the sun rises either north or south of true east (and sets north or south of true west). For all locations the sun is seen to rise north of east (and set north of west) from the March equinox to the September equinox, and rise south of east (and set south of west) from the September equinox to the March equinox.
It should also be noted that the amount that the sun appears to be either north or south depends on both the time of year and latitude of the observer. Knowing these will enable the observer to be more precise when determining the cardinal directions from the sun's position, particularly in the early morning or late afternoon.
The apparent
motion of the Sun is more reliable than its position. If a straight stick is planted in the ground so that it has no visible shadow, as the Sun moves (westward) a shadow will appear pointing due east. This works at any latitude.
Watch face
An
analog watchAnalog watch is an example of a retronym. It was coined to distinguish analog watches, which had simply been called "watches," from newer digital watches; see watch and clock....
can be used to locate north and south. The Sun appears to move in the sky over a 24 hour period while the hour hand of a 12-hour
clock faceA clock face is the part of an analog clock that displays the time through the use of a fixed numbered dial or dials and moving hands. In its most basic form, recognized universally throughout the world, the dial is numbered 1–12 indicating the hours in a 12-hour cycle, and a short hour hand...
takes twelve hours to complete one rotation. Indeed it does...but does it? In the northern hemisphere, if the watch is rotated so that the hour hand points toward the Sun, the point halfway between the hour hand and 12 o'clock will indicate south. For this method to work in the southern hemisphere, the 12 is pointed toward the Sun and the point halfway between the hour hand and 12 o'clock will indicate north. During
daylight saving timeDaylight saving time is the convention of advancing clocks so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn...
, the same method can be employed using 1 o'clock instead of 12.
There are relatively minor inaccuracies due to the difference between
local timeA time zone is a region of the earth that has uniform standard time, usually referred to as the local time. By convention, time zones compute their local time as an offset from UTC . Local time is UTC plus the current time zone offset for the considered location.-Introduction:Time zones are...
and zone time, and due to the
equation of timeThe equation of time is the difference between apparent solar time and mean solar time, both taken at a given place at the same real instant of time....
. The method functions less well as you get closer to the
equatorThe equator is the intersection of the Earth's surface with the plane perpendicular to the Earth's axis of rotation and containing the Earth's center of mass. In simpler language, it is an imaginary line on the Earth's surface equidistant from the North Pole and South Pole that divides the Earth...
.
The photograph shows a specialized 24-hour watch designed for finding directions using the Sun in the northern hemisphere. With the watch set to indicate local time, the hour hand is pointed directly at the Sun. North is then indicated by the local midnight position.
Nighttime stars
AstronomyAstronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere...
provides a more reliable method for finding direction at night. The Earth's axis is currently (but not permanently) pointed, to within a fraction of 1
degreeA degree , usually denoted by ° , is a measurement of plane angle, representing 1⁄360 of a full rotation; one degree is equivalent to π/180 radians...
, toward the bright
starA star is a massive, luminous ball of plasma that is held together by gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth. Other stars are visible in the night sky, when they are not outshone by the Sun...
PolarisPolaris is the brightest star in the constellation Ursa Minor. It is very close to the north celestial pole , making it the current northern pole star.Polaris is about 430 light-years from Earth...
. The exact direction of the axis changes over thousands of years due to the precession of the equinoxes. We call the end of the Earth's axis that points to Polaris the
North PoleThe North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets the Earth's surface...
. The opposite end of the axis is named the
South PoleThe South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earth's axis of rotation intersects the surface. It is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth and lies on the opposite side of the Earth from the North Pole...
. Polaris is also known as the
North StarThe North Star is the prominent pole star that lies closest in the sky to the north celestial pole and which appears directly overhead to an observer at the Earth's North Pole. Currently, this is Polaris, which lies about two thirds of a degree from the north celestial pole, at the end of the...
, and is generically called a
pole starA pole star is a visible star, especially a prominent one, that is approximately aligned with the Earth's axis of rotation; that is, a star whose apparent position is close to one of the celestial poles, and which lies directly overhead when viewed from the Earth's North Pole or South Pole...
or
lodestarA lodestar is a relatively bright, easily found star that is used to find direction, particularly with reference to Polaris, which during the 20th and 21st centuries indicates the direction to the north within a fraction of a degree...
. Polaris is only visible during
fair weatherWeather is a set of all the phenomena occurring in a given atmosphere at a given time. Weather phenomena lie in the troposphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate is the term for the average atmospheric conditions over longer periods...
at
nightNight or nighttime is the period of time when the sun is below the horizon. The opposite of night is day . Time of day varies based on factors such as season, latitude, longitude and timezone.-Duration and geography:Nights are shorter than days on average due to two factors...
to inhabitants of the
Northern HemisphereThe Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of the equator—the word hemisphere literally means 'half sphere'. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...
.
Picking out a specific single star may leave one uncertain they've found the right one. As an aid to identifying Polaris, the
asterismIn astronomy, an asterism is a pattern of stars seen in Earth's sky which is not an official constellation. Like constellations, they are composed of stars which, while they are in the same general direction, are not physically related, often being at significantly different distances from Earth....
"
Big DipperThe Plough or the Big Dipper is an asterism of seven stars that has been recognized as a distinct grouping in many cultures from time immemorial. The comprising stars are the seven brightest of the formal constellation Ursa Major.-Europe:...
" may be employed. The 2 corner stars of the "pan" (those opposite from the handle) point above the top of the "pan" to Polaris. This is illustrated at this
example, the beginning of a tutorial that teaches how to find Polaris. To see the rest of the tutorial click the link at the bottom of the illustration.
From the
Southern HemisphereThe Southern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is south of the equator—the word hemisphere literally means 'half ball'...
, nightly observations of the sky directly above the vicinity of the true pole will reveal that the visible stars appear to be moving in a circular path. (It is actually the observer that is moving in the circular path.) This becomes completely obvious when a special case of
long exposure photographyLong exposure photography is a technique that requires a slow shutter speed to capture light and movement.-Technique:When an image is taken including stationary and moving subjects using a slow shutter speed, interesting effects, such as light trails occur.Long...
is employed to record the observations, by locking the
shutterIn photography, a shutter is a device that allows light to pass for a determined period of time, for the purpose of exposing photographic film or a light-sensitive electronic sensor to light to capture a permanent image of a scene...
open for most of the intensely
darkDarkness is the absence of light. Scientifically it is only possible to have a reduced amount of light. The emotional response to an absence of light has inspired metaphor in literature, symbolism in art, and emphasis....
part of a moonless night. The resulting
photographA photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
reveals a multitude of
concentricConcentric objects share the same center, axis or origin with one inside the other. Circles, tubes, cylindrical shafts, disks, and spheres may be concentric to one another...
arcsIn geometry, an arc is a closed segment of a differentiable curve in the two-dimensional plane; for example, a circular arc is a segment of the circumference of a circle...
(portions of perfect circles) from which the exact
centerIn geometry, the centre of an object is a point in some sense in the middle of the object. If geometry is regarded as the study of isometry groups then the centre is a fixed point of the isometries.-Circles:...
can be readily derived. The common center is exactly aligned with the true (as opposed to the magnetic) pole. (This also is true of the northern hemisphere, and can be used to verify one has correctly identified Polaris, which will not appear to move.)
A published
photograph exposed for nearly 8 hours demonstrates this effect.
Inertial navigation
At the very end of the 19th century, to avoid the need to wait for fair weather at night to precisely verify one's alignment with
true northTrue north is the direction along the earth's surface towards the geographic North Pole.True north usually differs from magnetic north and grid north .The direction of true north is marked in the skies by the north celestial pole...
, the
gyrocompassA gyrocompass is similar to a gyroscope. It is a compass that finds true north by using an fast-spinning wheel and friction forces in order to exploit the rotation of the Earth. Gyrocompasses are widely used on ships...
was developed for ship use in scenarios where the magnetic compass simply wasn't good enough. It has the further advantages of immunity to interference by stray magnetic fields, and not depending on Earth's magnetic field at all. Its major disadvantage is that it depends on technology that many individuals might find too expensive to justify outside the context of a large commercial or military operation. It also requires a continuous power supply for its motors, and that it be allowed to sit in one location for a period of time while it properly aligns itself.
Satellite navigation
Near the end of the 20th century the advent of satellite-based
Global Positioning SystemThe Global Positioning System is a U.S. space-based global navigation satellite system. It provides reliable positioning, navigation, and timing services to worldwide users on a continuous basis in all weather, day and night, anywhere on or near the Earth.GPS is made up of three parts: between 24...
s (GPS) provided yet another means for any individual to determine true north accurately. While GPS Receivers (GPSRs) function best with a clear view of the entire sky, they function day or night, and in all but the most severe weather. The government agencies responsible for the satellites continuously monitor and adjust them to maintain their accurate alignment with the Earth. There are consumer versions of the receivers that are attractively priced. Since there are no periodic access fees, or other licensing charges, they have become widely used. GPSR functionality is becoming more commonly added to other consumer devices such as
mobile phoneA mobile phone or mobile is a long-range, electronic device used for mobile telecommunications...
s. Handheld GPSRs have modest power requirements, can be shut down as needed, and re
calibrateCalibration is the set of operations that establish, under specified conditions, the relationship between the values of quantities indicated by a measuring instrument and the corresponding values realized by standards...
within a couple of minutes of being restarted. In contrast with the gyrocompass which is most accurate when stationary, the GPS receiver must be moving, typically at more than 0.1
mphThe mile per hour is a unit of speed, measured in Imperial units expressing the number of international miles covered per hour.It is currently the unit used for speed limits, and speeds, on roads in the United Kingdom and United States...
(0.2
km/hThe kilometre per hour is a unit of speed or velocity, expressing the number of kilometers traveled in one hour...
), to correctly display compass directions. Within these limitations GPSRs are considered both accurate and reliable. The GPSR has thus become the fastest and most convenient way to obtain a verifiable alignment with the cardinal directions.
Additional points
The directional names are also routinely and very conveniently associated with the
degreesA degree , usually denoted by ° , is a measurement of plane angle, representing 1⁄360 of a full rotation; one degree is equivalent to π/180 radians...
of rotation in the
unit circleIn mathematics, a unit circle is a circle with a unit radius, i.e., a circle whose radius is 1. Frequently, especially in trigonometry, "the" unit circle is the circle of radius 1 centered at the origin in the Cartesian coordinate system in the Euclidean plane...
, a necessary step for navigational calculations (derived from
trigonometryTrigonometry is a branch of mathematics that deals with triangles, particularly those plane triangles in which one angle has 90 degrees...
) and/or for use with Global Positioning
SatelliteIn the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
(
GPSThe Global Positioning System is a U.S. space-based global navigation satellite system. It provides reliable positioning, navigation, and timing services to worldwide users on a continuous basis in all weather, day and night, anywhere on or near the Earth.GPS is made up of three parts: between 24...
)
ReceiversThis article is about a radio receiver, for other uses see Radio .A radio receiver is an electronic circuit that receives its input from an antenna, uses electronic filters to separate a wanted radio signal from all other signals picked up by this antenna, amplifies it to a level suitable for...
. The four cardinal directions correspond to the following degrees of a compass:
- North (N): 0° = 360°
- East (E): 90°
- South (S): 180°
- West (W): 270°
An
ordinal, or
intercardinal, or
intermediate, direction is one of the four intermediate compass directions located halfway between the cardinal directions.
- Northeast (NE), 45°, halfway between north and east, is the opposite of southwest.
- Southeast (SE), 135°, halfway between south and east, is the opposite of northwest.
- Southwest (SW), 225°, halfway between south and west, is the opposite of northeast.
- Northwest (NW), 315°, halfway between north and west, is the opposite of southeast.
These 8 words have been further compounded, resulting in a total of 32 named (and numbered) points evenly spaced around the compass. Some languages do not use compound words to name the points, instead assigning unique words, colors, and/or associations with phenomena of the natural world.
Usefulness of cardinal points
With the cardinal points thus accurately defined, by convention
cartographersCartography , or mapmaking, has been an integral part of the human story for a long time, possibly up to 8,000 years...
draw standard
mapA map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes....
s with north (N) at the
topThe most common relative directions are left, right, forward, backward, up, and down. No absolute direction corresponds to any of the relative directions. This is a consequence of the translational invariance of the laws of physics: nature, loosely speaking, behaves the same no matter what...
, and east (E) at the
rightThe most common relative directions are left, right, forward, backward, up, and down. No absolute direction corresponds to any of the relative directions. This is a consequence of the translational invariance of the laws of physics: nature, loosely speaking, behaves the same no matter what...
. In turn, maps provide a systematic means to record where places are, and cardinal directions are the foundation of a structure for telling someone how to find those places.
North does not have to be at the top. Portable
GPSThe Global Positioning System is a U.S. space-based global navigation satellite system. It provides reliable positioning, navigation, and timing services to worldwide users on a continuous basis in all weather, day and night, anywhere on or near the Earth.GPS is made up of three parts: between 24...
-based
navigationNavigation is the process of reading, and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks. The word navigate is derived from the Latin "navigare", meaning "to sail"...
computerA computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of instructions.Although mechanical examples of computers have existed through much of recorded human history, the first electronic computers were developed in the mid-20th century . These were the size of a large room, consuming as...
s can be set to
displayA display device is an output device for presentation of information for visual, tactile or auditive reception, acquired, stored, or transmitted in various forms. When the input information is supplied as an electrical signal, the display is called electronic display...
maps either conventionally (N always up, E always right) or with the
current instantaneousTime is a component of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects...
directionDirection is the information contained in the relative position of one point with respect to another point without the distance information. Directions may be either relative to some indicated reference , or absolute according to some previously agreed upon frame of reference Direction is the...
of
travelTravel is the change in location of people on a trip through the means of transport from one location to another. Travel is most commonly for recreation , for business or for commuting; but may be for numerous other reasons, such as migration, fleeing war, etc...
, called the
headingNavigation is the process of reading, and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks. The word navigate is derived from the Latin "navigare", meaning "to sail"...
, always
upThe most common relative directions are left, right, forward, backward, up, and down. No absolute direction corresponds to any of the relative directions. This is a consequence of the translational invariance of the laws of physics: nature, loosely speaking, behaves the same no matter what...
(and whatever direction is +90° from that to the right).
The direction of travel required to reach the intended destination is called the
bearingIn marine navigation, a bearing is the direction one object is from another object, usually, the direction of an object from one's own vessel. In aircraft navigation, a bearing is the actual compass direction of the forward course of the aircraft...
. Since the real
worldWorld is a highly common name for the planet Earth, but it was originally used to mean the sum of human civilization living on it, specifically human experience, history, or the 'human condition' in general....
presents numerous obstacles, a person must adjust their
headingIn navigation, a course is the intended path of a vehicle over the surface of the Earth. The course is the intended path of a vehicle of a line drawn on a chart representing the intended path. It is expressed as the angle measured from an object clockwise from 0° through 360° to the line. The...
accordingly. Upon moving
forwardThe most common relative directions are left, right, forward, backward, up, and down. No absolute direction corresponds to any of the relative directions. This is a consequence of the translational invariance of the laws of physics: nature, loosely speaking, behaves the same no matter what...
, the bearing will change so that it always points at the destination, thereby giving clues as to which way to turn. When travelling, it is often easier to work out where the next turn is, and whether to turn left or right, when the direction of travel is always up.
Beyond geography
Children are sometimes taught the order of these directions (clockwise, from North) by using a
mnemonicA mnemonic device is a mind memory and/or learning aid. Commonly, mnemonics are verbal—such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something—but may be visual, kinesthetic or auditory. Mnemonics rely on associations between easy-to-remember constructs which can be...
, such as "
Naughty
Elephants
Squirt
Water," "
Never
Eat
Soggy
Waffles", "
Never
Eat
Shredded
Wheat" ("
Soggy
Weet-BixWeet-Bix is the name of high-fibre breakfast biscuits manufactured in Australia and New Zealand by the Sanitarium Health Food Company, and in South Africa by Bokomo. The name is probably a contraction of wheat biscuits and as such the plural for "Weet-Bix" is generally "Weet-Bix"...
" in Australia & New Zealand), "
Never
Enter
Stinky
Washroom, "
Never
Eat
Slimy
Worms," or "
Never
Eat
Sour
Watermelon," or "
Never
Eat
Sea
Weed." Also, "
West and
East spell
WE."
In
mathematicsMathematics is the science and study of quantity, structure, space, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns, formulate new conjectures, and establish truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions....
,
cardinal directions or
cardinal points are the six principal directions or points along the x-, y- and z-axis of
three-dimensional spaceThree-dimensional space is a geometric model of the physical universe in which we live. The three dimensions are commonly called length, width, and depth , although any three mutually perpendicular directions can serve as the three dimensions....
.
In the real world there are six cardinal directions not involved with geography which are
northNorth is one of the four cardinal directions, specifically the direction that, in Western culture, is treated as the fundamental direction:* North is used to define all other directions....
,
southSouth is one of the cardinal directions and is opposite to the north.By Western convention, the bottom side of a map is south; the southern direction has azimuth or bearing of 180°....
,
eastEast is a direction in geography. It is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points, opposite of west and at right angles to north and south. East is the direction toward which the Earth rotates about its axis, and therefore the general direction from which the Sun appears to rise...
,
westWest is most commonly a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.West is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points...
,
upThe most common relative directions are left, right, forward, backward, up, and down. No absolute direction corresponds to any of the relative directions. This is a consequence of the translational invariance of the laws of physics: nature, loosely speaking, behaves the same no matter what...
and
downThe most common relative directions are left, right, forward, backward, up, and down. No absolute direction corresponds to any of the relative directions. This is a consequence of the translational invariance of the laws of physics: nature, loosely speaking, behaves the same no matter what...
. In this context, up and down relate to
elevationThe elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, often the mean sea level. Elevation, or geometric height, is mainly used when referring to points on the Earth's surface, while altitude or geopotential height is used for points above the surface, such as an...
,
altitudeAltitude is defined based on the context in which it is used . As a general definition, altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object...
, or possibly depth (if water is involved). The
topographic mapA topographic map is a type of map characterized by large-scale detail and quantitative representation of relief, usually using contour lines in modern mapping, but historically using a variety of methods...
is a special case of cartography in which the elevation is indicated on the map, typically via
contour lineA contour line of a function of two variables is a curve along which the function has a constant value. In cartography, a contour line joins points of equal elevation above a given level, such as mean sea level...
s.
Germanic origin of names
During the
Migration PeriodThe Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions or Völkerwanderung , was a period of human migration that occurred roughly between the years 300 to 700 CE in Europe, marking the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...
, the
Germanic languagesThe Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
' names for the cardinal directions entered the
Romance languagesThe Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
, where they replaced the
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
names
borealis (or
septentrionalis) with north,
australis (or
meridionalis) with south,
occidentalis with west and
orientalis with east. It is possible that some northern people used the Germanic names for the intermediate directions. Medieval Scandinavian orientation would thus have involved a 45 degree rotation of cardinal directions.
- north (Proto-Germanic *norþ-) from a root *ner- "left, below", i.e. "to the left of the rising Sun".
- east (*aus-to-) from the word for dawn
Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of the twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the presence of weak sunlight, while the sun itself is still below the horizon...
, see ĒostreOld English Ēostre and Old High German Ôstarâ are the names of a putative Germanic goddess whose Anglo-Saxon month, Ēostur-monath, has given its name to the Christian festival of Easter...
.
- south (*sunþ-) is root-cognate to Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 99.86% of the Solar System's mass....
itself, thus "the region of the Sun"
- west (*wes-t-) from a word for "evening", root-cognate to Latin vesper.
Cardinal directions in world cultures
Many cultures not descended from European traditions use cardinal directions, but have a number other than four. Typically, a “center” direction is added, for a total of five. Rather than the Western use of direction letters, properties such as
colorColor or colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, yellow, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors...
s are often associated with the various cardinal directions—these are typically the
natural colorsThe Natural Color System is a proprietary perceptual color model published by the Scandinavian Colour Institute of Stockholm, Sweden. It is based on the color opponency description of color vision, first proposed by German physiologist Ewald Hering...
of human perception rather than optical
primary colorPrimary colors are sets of colors that can be combined to make a useful range of colors. For human applications, three primary colors are usually used, since human color vision is trichromatic....
s. Some examples are shown here; In many regions of the world, prevalent winds change direction seasonally, and consequently many cultures associate specific named
windWind is the flow of air or other gases that compose an atmosphere . On Earth, wind consists of the bulk movement of air...
s with cardinal and ordinal directions. The classical
GreeksAncient Greece is the civilisation belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the...
personified these winds as
AnemoiIn Greek mythology, the Anemoi were wind gods who were each ascribed a cardinal direction, from which their respective winds came, and were each associated with various seasons and weather conditions...
. The article on
boxing the compassBoxing the compass is the action of naming all thirty-two principal points of the compass in clockwise order. Such names, formed by the initials of the cardinal directions and their intermediate ordinal directions, are accepted internationally, even though they have their origin in the English...
contains a more recent list of directional winds from the
Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
.
Far East
| Asia | | E | | W | ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
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AinuThe are an indigenous ethnic group of Japan. Historically they spoke the Ainu language and related varieties and lived in Hokkaidō, the Kuril Islands, and much of Sakhalin. Most of those who identify themselves as Ainu still live in this same region, though the exact number of living Ainu is...
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TurkicThe Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
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KalmyksKalmyk people or Kalmyks is the name given to western Mongolic people - Oirats who migrated from Central Asia in the seventeenth century. Today they form a majority in the autonomous Republic of Kalmykia on the western shore of the Caspian Sea...
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TibetTibet is a plateau region in Asia, north of the Himalayas. It is home to the indigenous Tibetan people, and to some other ethnic groups such as Monpas and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han Chinese people. Tibet is the highest region on earth, with an average...
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Dynastic ChineseThe following is a chronology of the dynasties in Chinese history. In reality, Chinese history is not as neat as is often described and it was rare indeed for one dynasty to end calmly and give way quickly and smoothly to a new one...
culture and some other
Central AsiaAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
n cultures view the
center as a fifth principal direction hence the English translated term
"Five Cardinal Points". Where it is different than the west, is that the term is used as a foundation for
I ChingThe I Ching , “Yì Jīng” , Classic of Changes or Book of Changes; also called Zhouyi, is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts. The book contains a divination system comparable to Western geomancy or the West African Ifá system...
, the Wu Xing and the five
Naked-eye planetIn antiquity the classical planets were the non-fixed objects visible in the sky, known to various ancient cultures. The classical planets were therefore the Sun and Moon and the five non-earth planets of our solar system closest to the sun ; all easily visible without a telescope. They are the...
s.
Each direction is often identified with a color, and geographical or ethnic terms may contain the name of the color instead of the name of the corresponding direction. These traditions were also carried west by the westward migration of the
Turkic peoplesThe Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
.
East: GreenGreen is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...
(青 "qīng" corresponds to green); Spring;
WoodTree , traditionally translated as Wood, is the growing of the matter, or the matter's growing stage. Tree is the first one of Wu Xing. Tree is yang in character...
- Qingdao
' , best known in the West by its postal map spelling Tsingtao, is a major city in eastern Shandong province, People's Republic of China. It borders Yantai to the northeast, Weifang to the west and Rizhao to the southwest. Lying across the Shandong Peninsula while looking out to the Yellow Sea,...
(Tsingtao) "Green Island": a city on the east coast of China
South: RedRed is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared , and cannot be seen by the naked human eye...
; Summer;
FireFire has been an important part of all cultures and religions, from pre-history to modern day, and was vital to the development of civilization. It has been regarded in many different fashions throughout history.-Greek and Roman Tradition:...
- Red River (Asia): south of China
- Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez,...
: south of TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
West: White White is a color, the perception which is evoked by light that stimulates all three types of color sensitive cone cells in the human eye in nearly equal amounts and with high brightness compared to the surroundings. A white visual stimulation will be void of hue and grayness.White light can be...
; Autumn;
MetalMetal , is the decline of the matter, or the matter's decline stage. Metal is the fourth phase of Wu Xing.Metal is yin in character, its motion is inwards and its energy is contracting. It is associated with the west and autumn, old age, the planet Venus and the color white. The archetypal metals...
- White Sheep Turkmen
The Ak Koyunlu or Aq Qoyunlu, also called the White Sheep Turkomans , was an Oghuz Turkic tribal federation, that ruled parts of present-day Eastern Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, northern Iraq, and western Iran from 1378 to 1508.-History:According to Byzantine chronicles, the Ak Koyunlu were...
- Ak Deniz "White Sea" in Turkish indicates the Sea of Marmara
The Sea of Marmara , also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, and in the context of classical antiquity as Propontis , is the inland sea that connects the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, thus separating Turkey's Asian and European parts. The Bosporus strait connects it to the Black Sea and...
, the Aegean SeaThe Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey respectively. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
, or the Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
- Belarus
Belarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mahilyow and Vitebsk...
(literally "White Russia"), according to one of the theories is the name given to the Western Rus by the Mongols
North: BlackBlack is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
; Winter;
WaterWater has been important to all peoples of the earth, and it is rich in spiritual tradition.-Greek and Roman tradition:Water is one of the four classical elements in ancient Greek philosophy and science...
- Heilongjiang
' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. "Heilongjiang" literally means Black Dragon River, which is the Chinese name for the Amur. The one-character abbreviation is 黑...
"Black Dragon River" province in Northeast ChinaNortheast China is a geographical region of China, consisting of the three provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. It is separated from Russia largely by the Amur, Argun, and Ussuri rivers, from North Korea by the Yalu River and Tumen River, and from the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region by...
, also the Amur River
- Black Sea
ur a loser!The Black Sea is an inland sea bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas and various straits. The Bosporus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects it to...
: north of TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
- Kara-Khitan Khanate
The Kara-Khitan Khanate, or Western Liao was a Khitan empire in Central Asia. The dynasty was founded by Yelü Dashi, who led the remnants of the Chinese Liao Dynasty to Central Asia after fleeing from the Jurchen conquest of their homeland in North and Northeast China...
Center: YellowYellow is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S cone cells. Light with a wavelength of 570–580 nm is yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of somewhat longer and shorter wavelengths...
;
EarthEarth, home and origin of humanity, has often been worshipped in its own right with its own unique spiritual traditio.-Greek and Roman tradition:...
- Mount Huang "Yellow Mountain" in central China
- Golden Horde
The Ulus of Jochi or the Golden Horde is an East Slavic designation for the Mongol—later Turkicized—Muslim khanate established in the western part of the Mongol Empire after the Mongol invasion of Rus' in the 1240s: present-day Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, and the Caucasus...
: "Central Army" of the Mongols
Americas
| America | | E | | W | ApacheApache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the American Southwest. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, and are related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
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AztecThe Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the Late post-Classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Often the term...
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CherokeeThe Cherokee are a Native American people from the Southeastern United States...
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MayanThe Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Preclassic period , many Maya cities reached their highest...
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NavajoThe Navajo or Diné of the Southwestern United States are the second largest Native American tribe of Northern America. In the 2000 U.S. census, 298,197 people claimed to be fully or partly of Navajo ancestry. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo...
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PuebloPueblos are traditional communities of Native Americans in the southwestern United States of America. The communities are recognized worldwide for their adobe buildings, which are sometimes called "pueblos"...
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SiouxSioux are a Native American and First Nations people. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many dialects...
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In
MesoamericaMesoamerica or Meso-America is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries...
and
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
, many traditional
indigenousThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples...
beliefs include four cardinal directions and a center. Each direction was associated with a color, which varied between groups but which generally corresponded to the hues of corn (green, black, red, white, and yellow). There seems to be no “preferred” way of assigning these colors; as shown in the table, great variety in color symbolism occurs even among cultures that are close neighbors geographically.
Unique (non-compound) names of ordinal directions
In some
languageA language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...
s, such as
FinnishFinnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. It is one of the official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a Finnish dialect, are spoken...
,
EstonianEstonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
and
BretonThe Breton language is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France.-History:Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish,...
, the ordinal directions have names that are not compounds of the names of the cardinal directions (as, for instance,
northeast is compounded from
north and
east). In Finnish those are
koillinen (northeast) ,
kaakko (southeast),
lounas (southwest), and
luode (northwest).
Non-compass directional systems
Use of the compass directions is common and deeply embedded in
European cultureThe culture of Europe might better be described as a series of overlapping cultures. Whether it is a question of West as opposed to East; Christianity as opposed to Islam; many have claimed to identify cultural fault lines across the continent. There are many cultural innovations and movements,...
, and also in
Chinese cultureThe Culture of China is one of the world's oldest and most complex cultures...
(see
South Pointing ChariotThe South Pointing Chariot is widely regarded as one of the most complex geared mechanisms of the ancient Chinese civilization, and was continually used throughout the medieval period as well. It was supposedly invented sometime around 2600 BC in China by the Yellow Emperor Huang Di, yet the first...
). Some other cultures make greater use of other referents, such as towards the sea or towards the mountains (
HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states, and is the only state made up entirely of islands. It is located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia. The state was admitted to the Union on August...
,
BaliBali is an Indonesian island located at the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. It is one of the country's 33 provinces with the provincial capital at Denpasar towards the south of the island....
), or upstream and downstream (most notably in ancient
EgyptAncient Egypt was divided into two regions, known as Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. To the north was Lower Egypt where the Nile stretched out with its several branches to form the Nile Delta. To the south was Upper Egypt, stretching to Syene. The two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt were united c....
, also in the
YurokYurok is a moribund Algic language. It is the traditional language of the Yurok tribe of Del Norte County and Humboldt County on the far North Coast of California, U.S., most of whom now speak English...
and
KarukKaruk is an indigenous people of California in the United States.The tribal headquarters, located off State Route 96, is in the town of Happy Camp, California. Currently the tribe has three tribal board meeting places, in Yreka, Happy Camp, and Orleans...
languages). Lengo (Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands) has four non-compass directions: landward, seaward, upcoast, and downcoast.
See also
- Azimuth
An Azimuth is the angle from a reference vector in a reference plane to a second vector in the same plane, pointing toward, , something of interest. For example, with the sea as your reference plane, the azimuth of the Sun might be the angle between due North and the point on the horizon the Sun...
- Boxing the compass
Boxing the compass is the action of naming all thirty-two principal points of the compass in clockwise order. Such names, formed by the initials of the cardinal directions and their intermediate ordinal directions, are accepted internationally, even though they have their origin in the English...
for all thirty-two English-named internationally-used principal points of the compass.
- Elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, often the mean sea level. Elevation, or geometric height, is mainly used when referring to points on the Earth's surface, while altitude or geopotential height is used for points above the surface, such as an...
- the mapping information ignored by the cardinal point system
- Geocaching
Geocaching is an outdoor activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook...
- a international hobby
- Geographic Information System (GIS)
A geographic information system , or geographical information system captures, stores, analyzes, manages, and presents data that is linked to location...
- Latitude
Latitude, usually denoted by the Greek letter phi gives the location of a place on Earth north or south of the equator. Lines of Latitude are the imaginary horizontal lines shown running east-to-west on maps that run either north or south of the equator...
and LongitudeLongitude , identified by the Greek letter lambda , is the geographic coordinate most commonly used in cartography and global navigation for east-west measurement...
- List of cartographers - about famous cartographers through history
- Magnetic deviation
Magnetic deviation is the error induced in a compass by local magnetic fields, which must be allowed for, along with magnetic declination, if accurate bearings are to be calculated.Relevant local magnetic fields include:...
- to understand why a compass does not align perfectly with the Earth's north and south poles.
- Orienteering
Orienteering is a family of sports that requires navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain. Participants are given a map, usually a specially prepared orienteering map, which they use to find control points...
- to learn about an internationally popular hobby and sport that depends on the above knowledge for success.
- Uses of trigonometry
Trigonometry has an enormous variety of applications. The ones mentioned explicitly in textbooks and courses on trigonometry are its uses in practical endeavors such as navigation, land surveying, building, and the like...