How are East and West defined without markers (as in the Poles - North and South)?

Question

North and South have Poles and are relativity fixed as being top and bottom of the globe, but East and West have no such markers, so how can we determine which parts of Earth are East (Japan/China etc) and which are West (USA) on a constantly spinning circular object?

I expect it has something to do with the rising/setting of the Sun, but this happens all over the planet, so how exactly are East and West defined?

Answer 1

it is defined by London,the greenwich meridian is the centre and anything west of that is the west etc......dates back to when London was the centre of the world.

Answer 2

I reckon it's now defined from the Greenwich Meridian in London at 0 latitude. And before that it may have been Europe generally. They, whoever they were, travelled to the East Indies for spices etc, tried to find a quicker way to India and found the West Indies thus creating an East and West. That's my theory anyway.

If you ever get the chance to visit the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London don't bother as it's rubbish. You get a nice view over the city but there are better things in London village to do than go here.

Answer 3

East is where the sun rises, west is where it sets. There is no point that is "furthest east" or "furthest west" like there is for north and south. From any point on earth (except the poles) it is possible to travel east or west, so no matter where you are, there are points to the east and to the west. However, the 0 degree and 180 degree meridians do define a circle around the earth. The part of the earth's surface on one side of that circle is referred to as the western hemisphere and the part on the other side is the eastern hemisphere. They have these names because because to reach any point in the western hemisphere from the 0 degree meridian (through Greenwich) one must travel west. Similarly, one would travel east from the Greenwich meridian to reach any point in the eastern hemisphere by the shortest route. Thus, the Americas (and parts of Europe, Africa and Antarctica) are in the western hemisphere while all other major landmasses are in the eastern hemisphere.

Answer 4

It is defined by the Greenwich or Prime Meridian for most of the world. The French, needless to say, have a different Meridian that passes through Paris.

Oh and yes there is a marker at Greenwich (please see the link).

Greenwich Observatory was set up by King Charles II in 1675 to study means of fixing longitude, and became the acknowledged world authority on the subject. An International Meridian Conference was convened at Washington in 1884 and the delegates recommended to their respective governments that Greenwich should be adopted as the prime meridian. The decision was by no means unanimous. A Canadian delegate, Sanford Fleming, produced figures showing that 72% of the world's shipping used Greenwich as prime meridian, with the remaining 28% divided among ten different meridians. The French, for political reasons, said that they would only accept Greenwich as the prime meridian if Great Britain adopted the metric system. Over the following years the various governments adopted Greenwich officially as prime meridian, with only France going its own way.
The French version that lies just over two degrees east of Greenwich and nine minutes and 22 seconds ahead of it.

Answer 5

The Greenwich Meridian was called 0 with the earth being split into 360 degrees. This came about with accurate clocks and navigation when Britain was exploring the world by sea. Latitude north/south was fairly easy to find by angle of sun, but longitude east/west was a huge problem until accurate seagoing timepieces were invented. This was essential for mapping new areas and trading places.

Answer 6

The Eastern and Western hemispheres are arbitrarily defined as the hemisperes that are East and West of the dividing line of zero degrees longitude that runs through Greenwich, England. No reason for deciding on that spot, other than it had to be someplace, and that's where the Royal Observatory was located.
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Answer 7

The Prime Meridian which runs north-south through Greenwich, England.

Answer 8

the directions north and south, as you pointed out, are defined by the poles through which the earth's axis run. east and west are defined as perpendicular to the meridian that connects those two poles. if you look due north, east is 90 degrees to the right and west is 90 degrees to the left.

Answer 9

Greenwich meridian 0 degrees.

Answer 10

Could it be The Holy Land :Anything East of Israel is East or could it be Turkey?I feel sure the Republic of Greece is West.