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Your sense of up and down comes from fluid in your inner ear. This fluid (like all objects) is pulled by the earth's gravity (that is, pulled toward the earth,) so anywhere you stand gravity will always pull the fluid toward your feet (or whatever your standing on.)

This is the same reason that standing on your head doesn't change your sense of up and down (down is still toward the floor).

People in space (well away from the Earth's gravity field) don't have any feeling for up and down.

Also keep in mind that it's only tradition that causes us to mount globes and maps so that the South Pole is always down. They would be just as accurate if they were upside down.

2006-12-28 09:22:08 · answer #1 · answered by Patienttraffic 2 · 1 0

The mass of the earth is so large that it has it's own gravitational pull. Think of it like a magnet. It pulls you toward the earth. When you are at the South Pole, you are not upside down, you are on earth and being pulled to it by gravity.

2006-12-28 09:21:44 · answer #2 · answered by united9198 7 · 0 0

Gravity pulls you towards the CENTER of the earth. If you were on the south pole, you would think everyone on the north pole is upside down.

2006-12-28 22:30:57 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

Haven't you ever been to the South Pole? I go there once a week to hang out with my penguin buddies, and you always feel upside down there! It's the strangest thing--feeling like you're going to fall off the earth but you don't. So worry not! Your hunch is right on!

2006-12-29 17:17:16 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0 1

The same reason you don't feel like you're leaning to one side (that is, to the south) when you're anywhere not near the north pole. Look at a globe -- if you're in North America, standing on a level surface, you're not standing anywhere close to due north.

Your problem is confusing "up" with "north". "Up" is the direction in opposition to gravity (that is, directly away from the center of the Earth, which means "up" in California and "up" in Australia are two different directions), while "north" is the direction the earth's rotational axis points, which is the same anywhere on the planet.

2006-12-28 09:27:31 · answer #5 · answered by Peter_AZ 7 · 1 1

The sensation of gravity pulls towards the centre of the earth and since we are so smaal relative to the size of the earth we feel like we are standing on flat ground.
The way our sense of balance works (fluid in our ears) down always feels like the direction from which the greatest gravitational pull is coming.
As this, on Earth , is always the centre of the earth, wherever you are standing 'down' for you feels like 'down' for that location even though it may not look like it from space.
Inertia can make a difference to your sense of balance eg like on a roller coaster but that's another story.

2006-12-28 10:37:12 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1 0

nicely, at the beginning there is not any such element as the opposite direction up on the topic of area. We in basic terms see the worldwide as we've been taught so how do human beings definitely understand which way up the worldwide particularly is? they do no longer because of the fact in area there is not any such element as the opposite direction up and is barely on the topic of gravity. consequently if we enter area in a spaceship you will fly over the south pole yet does no longer look any diverse on the circumference in basic terms the actuality that the land mass seems diverse. with the purpose to respond to your question, no human beings do no longer walk the opposite direction up everywhere on the face of the planet yet think of in basic terms a 2d approximately certainty of the worldwide being the opposite direction up because of the fact it in no way is. think of approximately it.

2016-12-15 10:02:10 · answer #7 · answered by ? 4 · 0 0

The earth sucks.

2006-12-28 09:19:51 · answer #8 · answered by higg1966 5 · 1 0

Gravity duhhh!

2006-12-28 09:15:51 · answer #9 · answered by deliah 3 · 0 1

gravity

2006-12-28 09:19:47 · answer #10 · answered by lizzie s 3 · 0 0

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