![Compass Rose English North](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Compass_Rose_English_North.svg)
North is one of the four
compass points or
cardinal directions. It is the opposite of
south
South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...
and is
perpendicular to
east and
west. ''North'' is a
noun,
adjective, or
adverb indicating
direction or
geography.
Etymology
The word ''north'' is
related
''Related'' is an American comedy-drama television series that aired on The WB from October 5, 2005, to March 20, 2006. It revolves around the lives of four close-knit sisters of Italian descent, raised in Brooklyn and living in Manhattan.
The ...
to the
Old High German ''nord'', both descending from the
Proto-Indo-European unit *''ner-'', meaning "left; below" as north is to left when facing the rising sun. Similarly, the other cardinal directions are also related to the sun's position.
The Latin word ''borealis'' comes from the
Greek ''
boreas'' "north wind, north", which, according to
Ovid, was personified as the wind-god
Boreas, the father of
Calais and Zetes
The Boreads ( grc, Βορεάδαι, Boreádai) are the "wind brothers" in Greek mythology. They consist of Zetes (also Zethes) ( grc, Ζήτης) and Calaïs ( grc, Κάλαϊς). Their place of origin was Thrace, home of their father Boreas (No ...
. ''Septentrionalis'' is from ''septentriones'', "the seven plow oxen", a name of ''
Ursa Major''. The Greek ἀρκτικός (''arktikós'') is named for the same constellation, and is the source of the English word ''
Arctic''.
Other languages have other derivations. For example, in
Lezgian, ''kefer'' can mean both "disbelief" and "north", since to the north of the Muslim
Lezgian homeland there are areas formerly inhabited by non-Muslim Caucasian and Turkic peoples. In many languages of
Mesoamerica, ''north'' also means "up". In
Hungarian, the word for north is ''észak'', which is derived from ''éjszaka'' ("night"), since above the
Tropic of Cancer, the
Sun never shines from the north, except inside the
Arctic Circle
The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the most northerly of the five major circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth. Its southern equivalent is the Antarctic Circle.
The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude at w ...
during the summer
midnight sun.
The direction north is quite often associated with colder climates because most of the world's land at high latitudes is located in the
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the Equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined as being in the same celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the solar system as Earth's Nort ...
. The Arctic Circle passes through the
Arctic Ocean,
Norway,
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
,
Finland,
Russia, the
United States (
Alaska),
Canada (
Yukon,
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...
and
Nunavut
Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...
),
Denmark (
Greenland) and
Iceland (where it passes through the small offshore island of
Grímsey).
Mapping and navigation
By
convention
Convention may refer to:
* Convention (norm), a custom or tradition, a standard of presentation or conduct
** Treaty, an agreement in international law
* Convention (meeting), meeting of a (usually large) group of individuals and/or companies in a ...
, the ''top or upward-facing'' side of a
map is north.
To go north using a compass for
navigation, set a
bearing or
azimuth of 0° or 360°. Traveling directly north traces a
meridian
Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to
Science
* Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon
* ...
line upwards.
North is specifically the direction that, in
Western culture, is considered ''the'' fundamental direction:
* North is used (explicitly or implicitly) to define all other directions.
* The (visual) top edges of
maps usually correspond to the northern edge of the area represented, unless explicitly stated otherwise or
landmarks are considered more useful for that territory than specific directions.
* On any rotating astronomical object, ''north'' often denotes the side appearing to rotate counterclockwise when viewed from afar along the axis of rotation. However, the
International Astronomical Union (IAU) defines the
geographic north pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Magn ...
of a
planet or any of its satellites in the
Solar System as the planetary pole that is in the same celestial hemisphere, relative to the
invariable plane of the Solar System, as Earth's north pole.
This means some objects, such as
Uranus, rotate in the retrograde direction: when seen from the IAU north, the spin is clockwise.
Magnetic north and declination
Magnetic north is of interest because it is the direction indicated as north on a properly functioning (but uncorrected) magnetic
compass. The difference between it and
true north is called the
magnetic declination (or simply the declination where the context is clear). For many purposes and physical circumstances, the error in direction that results from ignoring the distinction is tolerable; in others a mental or instrument compensation, based on assumed knowledge of the applicable declination, can solve all the problems. But simple generalizations on the subject should be treated as unsound, and as likely to reflect popular misconceptions about
terrestrial magnetism.
Maps intended for usage in orienteering by compass will clearly indicate the local declination for easy correction to true north. Maps may also indicate
grid north, which is a navigational term referring to the direction northwards along the grid lines of a
map projection.
Roles of north as prime direction
The visible rotation of the night sky around the visible
celestial pole provides a vivid metaphor of that direction corresponding to "up". Thus the choice of the north as corresponding to "up" in the northern hemisphere, or of south in that role in the southern, is, prior to worldwide communication, anything but an arbitrary one - at least for night-time astronomers. (Note: the southern hemisphere lacks a prominent visible analog to
the northern Pole Star.) On the contrary, Chinese and Islamic cultures considered south as the proper "top" end for
maps. In the cultures of
Polynesia, where navigation played an important role, winds - prevailing local or ancestral - can define
cardinal point
The four cardinal directions, or cardinal points, are the four main compass directions: north, east, south, and west, commonly denoted by their initials N, E, S, and W respectively. Relative to north, the directions east, south, and west are a ...
s.
In
Western culture:
* Maps tend to be drawn for viewing with either true north or magnetic north at the top.
*
Globes of the earth have the
North Pole at the top, or if the Earth's axis is represented as inclined from vertical (normally by the angle it has relative to the axis of the Earth's orbit), in the top half.
* Maps are usually labelled to indicate which direction on the map corresponds to a direction on the earth,
** usually with a single arrow oriented to the map's representation of true north,
** occasionally with a single arrow oriented to the map's representation of magnetic north, or two arrows oriented to true and magnetic north respectively,
** occasionally with a
compass rose, but if so, usually on a map with north at the top and usually with north decorated more prominently than any other compass point.
* "Up" is a metaphor for north. The notion that north should always be "up" and east at the right was established by the Greek astronomer
Ptolemy. The historian
Daniel Boorstin
Daniel Joseph Boorstin (October 1, 1914 – February 28, 2004) was an American historian at the University of Chicago who wrote on many topics in American and world history. He was appointed the twelfth Librarian of the United States Congress in ...
suggests that perhaps this was because the better-known places in his world were in the northern hemisphere, and on a flat map these were most convenient for study if they were in the upper right-hand corner.
[
]
Roles of east and west as inherently subsidiary directions
While the choice of north over south as prime direction reflects quite arbitrary historical factors, east and west are not nearly as natural alternatives as first glance might suggest. Their folk definitions are, respectively, "where the sun rises" and "where it sets". Except on the Equator, however, these definitions, taken together, would imply that
* east and west would not be 180 degrees apart, but instead would differ from that by up to twice the degrees of latitude of the location in question, and
* they would each move slightly from day to day and, in the
temperate zones, markedly over the course of the year.
Reasonably accurate folk astronomy, such as is usually attributed to
Stone Age
The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...
peoples or later
Celts, would arrive at east and west by noting the directions of rising and setting (preferably more than once each) and choosing as prime direction one of the two mutually opposite directions that lie halfway between those two. The true folk-astronomical definitions of east and west are "the directions, a right angle from the prime direction, that are closest to the rising and setting, respectively, of the sun (or moon).
Cultural references
Being the "default" direction on the compass, north is referred to frequently in Western popular culture. Some examples include:
* "North of X" is a phrase often used by Americans to mean "more than X" or "greater than X" in relation to the conventional direction of north being upwards, i.e. "The world population is north of 7 billion people" or "north of 40
ears old
An ear is the organ that enables hearing and, in mammals, body balance using the vestibular system. In mammals, the ear is usually described as having three parts—the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear consists ...
.
See also
*
Nordicity
*
List of northernmost items
*
Northing
A projected coordinate system, also known as a projected coordinate reference system, a planar coordinate system, or grid reference system, is a type of spatial reference system that represents locations on the Earth using cartesian coordina ...
*
Northern Light
*
Septentrional
Septentrional, meaning "of the north", is a Latinate adjective sometimes used in English. It is a form of the Latin noun ''septentriones'', which refers to the seven stars of the ''Plough'' (Big Dipper), occasionally called the ''Septentrion'' ...
References
External links
*
{{Commons category
Orientation (geometry)