If there is no up or down in space, maybe the earth is sideways, not like we see in maps...?

Answer 1

There is no sideways in space, either.

Directions are relative to perspective. The direction that is down to me is the same direction as up is to people on the other side of this round world.

Maybe the earth is inside-out?

Answer 2

Jenny, if there is no up or down, then logically, there is no direction, until it is assigned from some point in space, such as the sun. Thus, the earth, by itself, has no particular orientation. Using the sun as a reference point, we find that the poles are, on average, at a 90 degree orientation to the sun. This explains why the sun is seen first in the east, and disappears in the west, not in a north-south direction. Maps are created using North as a common reference point. Why, I'm not sure, but it's probably an artefact of historical map making.

Answer 3

In the freefall of Space, there is no up nor down such as we sense in the gravity of Earth. The rotational axis of the Earth is understood to pass through the North and South poles. Maps are usually oriented with North at the top because compass needles orient themselves to magnetic North.

Answer 4

Remember the famous quote "all things are relative"? Of course the earth could be sideways, it could also be upside down or even inside out depending on how you define those terms. Think of a person standing on a street in Hong Kong

Answer 5

There is this concept called the right-hand-rule. Hold your right hand out in front of you with your thumb up and your fingers curled. The fingers are representing the direction the earth is spinning and the thumb sticking out the top signifies the north pole. Most planets in our solar system lie on a plane called the ecliptic and they go around the sun in the same direction as this curled hand. Therefore the sun has a north pole too as does the solar system. There are some exceptions -one of the planets spins with its south pole up for example. Our convention is to put north on top when looking at the globe of a planet, or looking at a model of the solar system.

Answer 6

The earth is not "sideways" because there is no direction in space. Humans have just made it look "right side up" by taking pictures and rotating them.

Answer 7

Direction is human invention. There is no objective "up" or "down", it it all just relative to an aribtrary origin. Think of it this way, if two people stand on exact opposites of the earth and point in the same absolute direction, one person would be pointing down relative to the horiztion and one person would be pointing up. So simply no, there is no objective direction in space or elsewhere, direction is just a human convention to describe orientation and movement.

Answer 8

"Up" or "down" is all relative to where you're standing. We do recognize the Earth spins around its axis. It's just easier for us to visualize the Earth & solar system if we draw maps with the axis of rotation vertical.

Answer 9

We assign north to be the upward direction arbitrarily with respect to the physical nature of things.

It would not be incorrect to flip the whole map upside down, as long as you keep in mind that that is the case.

Answer 10

"UP" is the gradient of the gravitational potential, which is well-defined almost everywhere in space. It may not point in the same direction everywhere, as in opposites sides of the earth, but it is defined.