Say I was in a space ship....?

Question

and I flew towards antarctica on the bottom of the planet wouldn't you land upsidedown??? or would the atmosphere pull some weird Illisuion on you?

Answer 1

We in the Southern Hemisphere are actually at the top. The practice of placing maps the other way round began with Christopher Columbus's navigator, whose name was Nina. Nina couldn't read a map without orienting it to the direction they were travelling. It was downhill from there.

Because of this, you may feel a slight lack of balance if you landed at the South Pole, because you in the north are used to having your head hang from the end of your upside-down body. If you're at the south, your head will suddenly be at the top and you will therefore feel more top heavy than usual.

Answer 2

If you are on Earth down is the direction gravity pulls you, which is toward the ground, or toward the center of the globe. In space there is no up or down. The south pole of Earth is not "down". That is just a map making and globe making convention, it has no physical reality. We could easily make all our globes with the north pole at the bottom. But everyone has just agreed to always show the north pole at the top of any map or globe. Not because it is really "up", but just so all the maps look the same.

Answer 3

As you approach Earth from space, you see it looming ever larger in the view out the window. You decide to land on the south pole, and begin flying directly towards the pole. As you pitch the ship down the Earth now appears "above" you.

As you get closer and closer to Earth, and enter its gravitational field, you'll increasingly begin to feel "upside down" as all of the land will be 'above' you. You would most likely just roll your craft so that the Earth was underneath your ship. If you didn't - if you just simply flew a straight line directly at the south pole, then you would land on the roof of your spaceship.

This is all assuming that the north pole was "up" during your intial approach. Suppose you came from Alpha Centauri and made a direct rendezvos with Earth... you would see the south polar region as "the side" and depending on what time of day it was on Earth, London might be the "top" and the Pacific Ocean might be the "bottom."

Directions are all relative. On Earth, we declare "up" and "down" to be relative to gravity. Out in space, that doesn't really apply very well. We usually determine the Sun's north pole to be "up" when in the Solar System context.

Answer 4

Well relative to us, if we are in the northern hemisphere, then yes, you would be "upside down"

But it doesn't matter. Gravity pulls us all toward the center of the earth. Not the bottom. So either way, we're all on earth and gravity is all pulling us toward the center. But relative to the spaceship dude, we would be upside down.

Answer 5

Gravity defines up and down. "Down" is always the direction toward the center of the earth. Down at the north pole points in the opposite direction as down at the south pole but down is still toward the earth's center.