Simple Question : what way is up?

Which way is up? lol

Which way is left? which way is right?

Is Earth revolving around the Sun in a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction?

Does the galaxy spin like a frisbee (horizontal), or does it spin like a wheel (vertical)?

The answer is only relative to the position of an object as perceived by intelligent beings.

Fish don't care which way is up. Insects don't care, they walk around upside-down. Plants don't care which way is up, they just grow toward the sunlight.

I wonder what a tree would look like growing without the effects of gravity?

I'm sure Napolitano is following this thread because she'd really like an answer to that question.

A dead fish's belly knows which way is up. Opposite gravity!

[edit on 3-5-2009 by Albertarocks]

The book "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card answers this question and many more that you may not even know you had.

"The enemy's gate is down."

It's all about perspective and where you place yourself in reality.

Actually you make a good point.

When most look at the Sky ( say at night ), they think we are looking up.

This is true with respect to our feet, but in relation to the Universe we see, we are actually Looking "Outward" from our origin of Observation.

Example two people looking from a planet from different locations on that planet.

Or looking from a space craft that is slowly Yawing.

So if we are all looking outward from our own origins, how do you view a common origin we look from ???

Or do we have an origin of observation which is in fact, looking from the outside of our experience, and into a Universe we see before us ???

So really do we need to understand "Up" in terms of Symmetry, with regard to many separate conditions ???
I don't thing there is a common "Up" as you put it, but rather an assigned "Up" to a given perspective, i.e. the top of a page etc.

So the opposites are "Up" and "Down".

With regard to this Universe, Downward could also be viewed as "Inward" and Upward as "Outward" in this particular situation, or is it ???

Then we see Two perspectives of "Up" and "Down" one at right angles to the other... LOL..

If you understand what I am trying to explain ???

But then All things come in pairs in existence, whether in pairs as in opposites or similarities.

This is the fun part.. and ill say this once so everyone can understand it


YOU are looking INSIDE OUT

that is why its confusing ..

The universe be for you is a physical representation OF YOUR MIND.

IT my friends Requires LIFE in order for It to function... logical functions is the key of understanding

S - A

Up is any direction that points away from the pull of gravity, from a human perspective of course.

reply to post by Watcher-In-The-Shadows ok, i'm being serious also even though it may not come out that way but what if you somehow bored through the planet an ended up on your head?

reply to post by The Matrix Traveller that's true, when we look to the sky we think we are looking up but what if you were there and looking at earth? you wouldn't be looking down

Basically up in my opinion is traveling away from a nucleus on a microscopic scale or away from what your standing on on a macroscopic one. In reality up is outward or expansion, down is compression.

[edit on 8-5-2009 by pharaohmoan]

reply to post by echodogene


How about this? If you were say to be teleport in your exact orientation to the exact opposite side of the globe. Yes, you would be standing on your head. Here's a diagram.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/3a7fb937ad67.jpg[/atsimg]
Sorry, it's kinda quick and dirty.

reply to post by Watcher-In-The-Shadows nice diagram (laughing) but then the up would be down. so when we actually think about it, there is no such thing as up. we automatically think gravity is down when what it really does is keep us in. there (what a coincidense) is a documentary on gravitons, i Did Not plan this! i'm going to watch it before hubby leaves, he's my walking encyclopedia
thankyou for the picture

reply to post by Watcher-In-The-Shadows question concerning your signature, if one does not understand a theory or problem, does one hide under a rock or take a chance and try and understand it?

reply to post by symmetricAvenger


Simple Question : what way is up?


Well .... emmmm , if i was buried by an avalanche , i would urinate .... warm leg or warm chest would show the way ....

reply to post by UmbraSumus now that's something i would have "thought" but you're confusing gravity with what is up

Zeno's paradoxes are a set of problems generally thought to have been devised by Zeno of Elea to support Parmenides's doctrine that "all is one" and that, contrary to the evidence of our senses, the belief in plurality and change is mistaken, and in particular that motion is nothing but an illusion.

The arrow paradox

“ If everything when it occupies an equal space is at rest, and if that which is in locomotion is always occupying such a space at any moment, the flying arrow is therefore motionless. ”
—Aristotle, Physics VI:9, 239b5

In the arrow paradox, Zeno states that for motion to be occurring, an object must change the position which it occupies. He gives an example of an arrow in flight. He states that in any one instant (dimensionless point) of time, for the arrow to be moving it must either move to where it is, or it must move to where it is not. It cannot move to where it is not, because this is a single instant, and it cannot move to where it is because it is already there. In other words, in any instant of time there is no motion occurring.

--------------------------------------

To which I would add that past and future are illusory, and that therefore what we consider to be motion, is an illusion. There is only one thing in a state of constant flux.

So if there is no where to "go", and no escape from the eternally unfolding present moment, if we cannot be content where we are now in our present configuration, then we will never be.

Acceptance of what is, therefore, is the highest state of being, and only from that position of rest is any real creativity possible. Anything else is a veiled attempt at change, where change is more, different from or better than, what went before.

reply to post by echodogene


I suppose our perceptions have been shaped by the environment in which we have evolved , gravity must be acknowledged as influencing those perceptions.


....out of curiosity......
Do you regard North as up ?

Would you say you are going "up North" ?

reply to post by OmegaPoint this is one of those posts that must be read 3 times, in your first paragraph are you saying there is a difference in motion and movement?
your second paragraph, are you saying that what is in motion around us is what is constantly evolving naturally

reply to post by UmbraSumus now that i think about it i do say that, thankyou for bringing that to my attention

reply to post by UmbraSumus


well there is only logical up in relative to our own understanding .. we need them for reference only.

but understand that the universe is just like your mind.. in fact it s a physical representation of your mind.

Originally posted by symmetricAvenger
reply to post by UmbraSumus

 

well there is only logical up in relative to our own understanding .. we need them for reference only.

but understand that the universe is just like your mind..

in fact it s a physical representation of your mind.

I hear what you are saying ......

Just examining the influence of the cardinal points on our sense of `place`.

I was just musing as to why North was assigned the UP value . I`m sure the answer probably lies in early cartography ,& Eurocentric perspectives .
Do Australians for example, feel they are `beneath` something ?
(South African rugby fans- resist the urge to answer that one ..)

Like you say , they are only reference points , but they are rather revealing .

Most people wouldn`t recognise there own country ...... if you turn a map of it , `the wrong way up`