Timeline for Compass/magnetic directions in Middle-earth
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
14 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jan 6, 2023 at 17:20 | comment | added | chepner | True; I should have said compasses would just have been marked differently. Magnetic north is called as such because it is close enough to north. (If it weren't, the direction the arrow points would just have been given a name suitable to the existing terminology.) | |
| Jan 6, 2023 at 17:16 | comment | added | Mooing Duck | @chepner: But the direction already accepted as north would have been useless to anyone but a map maker until the invention of the compass. People almost certainly used the path of the sun and stars to navigate until then. From what I can see, many 10th century maps had East at the top. fineartamerica.com/featured/… | |
| Jan 5, 2023 at 16:50 | comment | added | Zayn | South is the direction that feels like going downhill. | |
| Jan 4, 2023 at 22:51 | comment | added | chepner | Compasses were considered useful because magnetic north is close enough to the direction already accepted as north. | |
| Jan 4, 2023 at 20:17 | comment | added | Simon Crase | A while ago I was with several New Zealanders, all keen trampers, who mentioned being disoriented the first time they visited the Northern Hemisphere; they unconsciously expected the Sun to be to the North. Even though Thorin's company spent a lot of time underground, they would be used to walking from one community to another (I don't think that Eagle Air offered a commercial service), so they'd have a good sense of direction. | |
| Jan 4, 2023 at 15:28 | comment | added | PM 2Ring | In the real world, people were navigating for thousands of years before the development of the magnetic compass. From en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_compass "The history of the compass started more than 2000 years ago during the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD). [...] The first usage of a compass in Western Europe was recorded in around 1190 and in the Islamic world 1232". | |
| Jan 4, 2023 at 15:18 | review | Close votes | |||
| Jan 4, 2023 at 16:23 | |||||
| Jan 4, 2023 at 12:00 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackSciFi/status/1610606996700495873 | ||
| Jan 4, 2023 at 9:46 | history | became hot network question | |||
| Jan 4, 2023 at 9:40 | history | edited | lfurini | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 10 characters in body
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| Jan 4, 2023 at 7:38 | answer | added | ibid | timeline score: 46 | |
| Jan 4, 2023 at 4:00 | history | edited | Buzz | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 39 characters in body; edited title
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| Jan 4, 2023 at 3:59 | answer | added | Buzz | timeline score: 23 | |
| Jan 4, 2023 at 1:45 | history | asked | MissMonicaE | CC BY-SA 4.0 |