Simple Question : what way is up?

Not such a simple question after all eh?

I love this sort of thing. Anyone got any links to similar mind problems?

reply to post by symmetricAvenger

Up is the way gravity isn't pulling you down. The end of up would be somewhere between 2 gravitational bodies (The earth would be one of them). The end of down (at this moment to me) would be the very center of the earth, because earth is exerting its gravitational force on me more than any other object so it is pulling me towards it (down).

From a "inside a human body" view. Up will always be towards our head, Down will always be towards our feet, no matter where you are in the universe. and since we can't just fly away from the body, i think that's as good as it gets in terms of answering the question. imo.

Up is not always towards your head, because you can fall downwards headfirst. You could be climbing up a ladder to the moon but it only is up to us because earth's gravity is constantly pulling us down. If suddenly the moon had more gravity than the earth while climbing a ladder between the two, we would be climbing a ladder upside down.

if you can fall head first then you're going the direction your feet should be, which is .. down. ...

reply to post by jaden_x


exactly! Down is the way gravity is pulling you, and you want your feet to be in that direction most of the time instead of your head. But say you are laying down, then up wouldn't be straight out from the top of your head, it would be towards the sky.

Up is arbitrary to a fixed point in space and your chosen orientation. There is no such thing as "up" and "down" in physical reality - only "in" and "out" in regards to fixed points in space such as gravity wells - and even then, that's still dependent on the observer assigning such a point to be the fixed location in space relative to his position.

Working in construction, I would borrow someones level and they would say the arrows are up. This meaning that they zeroed the level in the vertical position then marked it with arrows pointed up. I always thought it was ridiculous to point the arrows up because there wasn't a reference "up there". I thought it would be more accurate to point the arrows down to the center of the earth. From the center of the earth all ways are up. I guess it is up even into space until you get to a Lagrange point then it's down from there.

Up is in the imagination of the observer.

hey! been out so sorry for no response, hehe lots of great feedback!!


only one post has got it correct so far!!

and it has noting to do with gravity but a lot to do with your logical thinking.

what way is up? ; )

read the thread and you will see one post that got it right


not an easy answer is it? why? because there is no answer to what is up.... there in fact is no up down left or right.. there is a need for a human to construct it for its logical system to measure its own perception as well as time

how do you think time works? if there is no up down left or right?


that is time.. a measurement of distance "a thought"


preconceptions go along way to understand what it is in fact we are inside!

no up no down no left no right.

just YOU here making left right up and down a measurement of you own understanding of yourself.

funny?

i think not.. look out the window.. life is FULL of miss conceptions.

: ))

hope my thread made you think just that extra mile in time and space

Originally posted by pooty
that's a pretty interesting question.After thinking about it my answer is there is no up there is only in and out.Think about it.

in and out is a good description in is you out is the understanding of you own self being here

that is why we have time and measurement..

((Perception is everything))

well done

What do you mean there is no up? Up is the opposite of the way you fall towards the greatest gravitational force acting on your body. In a vacuum there is no up, but other than that it evidently does exist. It is a direction that one perceives within his or her own body and mind.

reply to post by symmetricAvenger


Quite thought provoking thread. Your question and was actually something i contemplated about as a child, wondering about up and down and people 'down under' so to speak.

..... and because of the child in me, i leave you with these









[edit on 18-4-2009 by MCoG1980]

Originally posted by jaden_x
From a "inside a human body" view. Up will always be towards our head, Down will always be towards our feet, no matter where you are in the universe. and since we can't just fly away from the body, i think that's as good as it gets in terms of answering the question. imo.

Ah, but what if you're standing on your head? Then up would be towards you feet. "Up" has no natural mean, 'tis only a human communication creation.

Simple reply, there is no such thing. Up is a relative term. Without down, left, and right, there is no up.

On earth where there is gravity, "up" is the direction opposite of the way they fall. SO Up is towards the sky.

however in space, up and down does not exsist because there is no gravity. Nothing falls down, it just floats. There is no North,South,East or West either because there is no magnetic pole for a compass to point to.

On earth, or any planet that has gravity, Up is the direction opposite a dropped item falls.

I hope that makes sense.

To know which way is up relative to us in our Milky Way galaxy, you have to wait until after sunset on a cloudless night and then go outside and locate the Orion Belt .. THAT will be your reference in determining which way is up and which way is down. Of course, which side of the galaxy is up and which is down is open to debate, but that's about as close as you can get to knowing.

Originally posted by symmetrical-spacemonkey
Simple reply, there is no such thing. Up is a relative term. Without down, left, and right, there is no up.

Well, I don't see what left and right have to do with it, but even with this statement you are saying up really does exist. Because you say without down, left, and right, then up would not exist. But since there are these directions, then there is an up (that's what you are saying with that statement anyways).

"Up" is relative and requires a gravitational reference point (i.e. something to stand on, something below your feet) to ascertain.
or
what you see when you tilt your head back all the way
or
requires an estabolished "down" to comprehend. Hmm... now how do you establish down without an up?

Really it takes a "down" in order to have an "up" and vice versa

Nope....its a universal truth, doesn't matter where you are, planet, star or space, you cannot fall up. Down is the most common direction to fall, but you can fall to the left, the right, you can fall in of out but falling up is out of the question. You can jump up, get thrown up......you can even shoot up, but you still can't fall up. Even without gravity you can't fall up, you can float up but that requires some type of propulsion. The closest you can come to falling up is to be sucked up into a vortex but that is just another way of being pulled up. And so it goes.

Ive often wondered the same thing actually. But I have to agree with the other poster when he says the opposite of where my feet are haha.