# During daytime, can you tell the direction you're facing? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 8, 2010, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419 "2010-04-08T16:01:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419/61 "2010-04-09T13:18:53Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > I wish I could use this as my excuse, but I get lost inside malls too. I can only tell you which direction I’m traveling in if there’s a sign by the side of the road that tells you. I really don’t think this counts. I get lost in malls, too, but they want you to. They want you to wander to the exit, and find things on the way to shop for. White plains Galleria is one of the worst offenders. No way should it be a different amount of floors in different sections of the mall. And it’s still all stupid shit. ---
**Author:** ![Firebird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/2acd7d/32.png) [@Firebird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Firebird)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419/62 "2010-04-09T13:43:36Z")
> [@bearman217](#): > > … it shouldn’t be that hard to tell your current direction as long as you mentally note any change in you direction. For instance, if you are heading north and turn left, now you’re heading east. It’s easy. That’s funny. If it’s not hard, then why did you get it wrong? Grab your globe and a few maps or go to goole maps. Take a good look at what is east, and what’s west. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419/63 "2010-04-09T14:11:28Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > I really don’t think this counts. I get lost in malls, too, but they want you to. They want you to wander to the exit, and find things on the way to shop for. > > White plains Galleria is one of the worst offenders. No way should it be a different amount of floors in different sections of the mall. And it’s still all stupid shit. Yeah, plus every time you go into a shop the mall elves come out and rearrange all the walkways. The local town centre (which I could find my way around no problem as a child) turned into a covered mall, with the same basic street layout, 20 years ago. I still have _absolutely no idea_ which street I will come out on when I go out of an exit. I suspect the elves here actually lift the whole mall and turn it through 90 degrees every so often. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419/64 "2010-04-09T14:12:17Z")
Couple my directional dyslexia with My Beloved’s tendency to give directions like “Turn west on 23rd, go about five or six blocks, then turn up Stevens”… Up? _Up??_ ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419/65 "2010-04-09T14:30:08Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Having lived almost all my life with Lake Michigan to the east of me and within 20 miles of me, I’ll admit to some confusion when I’m on the west coast of the US or somewhere else where the Local Big Body of Water does not designate “east.” (Note that I don’t have to be within sight of same said LBBW, but when I know where it is, it goes into my mental map.) But otherwise I can generally figure it out pretty quickly… Funny flip side of this, my ex-wife and I grew up in coastal Northern California, where the LBBW designates west, of course. Her dad had a position in Chicago, and one Easter, we decided to fly out and visit him and Chicago. Normally, she had a pretty good sense of direction, but wandering around downtown and having the LBBW designate East confused both of us for a little while… And we were walking; God help us if we had been driving in those pre-GPS days. For the OP, at any one moment, I can tell which direction I’m facing given daylight and a sense of the time. What’s tough, on occasion, is stacking together multiple legs and changes of direction during a journey from A to B to get an idea of how far we ended up from A. ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419/66 "2010-04-09T14:58:45Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I see, and south of the equator the sun moves from west to east? > > If the sun is out (or the clouds not too thick) and I know the time, I will know the direction. If you have a shadow, the quote will work anywhere, north or south. DOH! In my head, I was thinking that with the bisected line, the part pointing to the sun is South. In the Southern Hemisphere it would point north. I didn’t type it out though. The line would still be east/west as you indicated. > [@Renee](#): > > Sorry, that reply was tongue-in-cheek, obviously it didn’t translate that way. I didn’t mean to dis your mad navigating skilz, which I envy, for the record. Sorry, I miss read the reply. It’s tough to see the cheek bulge in typed text. I’m very proud of my navigation skills, and they’ve served me very well on many occasions. By the way, if you are wearing an old fashioned analog watch (one with hands), and you can see the sun, line up the hour hand with the sun, and south will be half way between the hand’s position, and the 12 o’clock position. **Hari Seldon** , north for the Southern hemisphere. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419/67 "2010-04-09T19:36:15Z")
Anytime, day or night, clear or cloudy, indoors or out. Left and right, on the other hand, and I look at you and say “Duhhhh, WHAT?” Malls mess me up, however. They are designed that way. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419/68 "2010-04-09T20:03:28Z")
Sure, I can tell what direction I’m facing and what time it is within 20 or 30 min. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419/69 "2010-04-09T20:14:27Z")
I’ve heard it said that this thing of being attuned to North/South/East/West is a particularly American phenomenon, because if you look at street maps of US cities very many of them are rectangular grids oriented that way, or close to it. And anecdotally, I have noticed Americans giving directions or describing their location in terms of the primary compass directions, in a way that a British person perhaps wouldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![\_Undecided\_Adrian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/eada6e/32.png) [@\_Undecided\_Adrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Undecided_Adrian)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419/70 "2010-04-09T21:04:21Z")
I’m not too great when walking or driving in a city, because in Europe it really doesn’t help you that much. But I fly gliders, and during one competition I removed the compass because it sat in my view field which is bad when you sometimes have 20 other gliders in a radius of 200 meters around you. I normally never look at the thing, because the GPS is much more convenient. Of course in one flight the batteries weren’t charged properly and had to complete a flight of 360 km all over Southern Germany, in an unfamiliar area, without any electronic help and without a compass, just a map. (I had a backup GPS unit with a separate battery, but of course out of reach.) But I never got lost, even though you have to circle in thermals every 15 minutes or so, and it was even one of my better flights in that competition. I’m still proud of that 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419/71 "2010-04-10T04:46:10Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > I’ve heard it said that this thing of being attuned to North/South/East/West is a particularly American phenomenon, because if you look at street maps of US cities very many of them are rectangular grids oriented that way, or close to it. I grew up in the sticks, not the city. I once took off thru the woods to go to a friend’s house on a different road, but the same “block” (if you can call a few 10s of square miles a “block”. I came out within 100 yds of his house. Yes, my parents let me do that. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419/72 "2010-04-10T05:40:47Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > I’ve heard it said that this thing of being attuned to North/South/East/West is a particularly American phenomenon, because if you look at street maps of US cities very many of them are rectangular grids oriented that way, or close to it. Only in cities that were planned, which usually means they’re newer. Look at a map of an older city settled back in the early history of the country, and you’ll find no grid patterns to speak of. [Boston](http://www.massachusettsbrazil.com/images/map-boston-area.gif), for example. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419/73 "2010-04-10T06:02:55Z")
There was a comedian, I don’t remember who, that came to Seattle. He asked someone at his hotel how tofind some place. Off he went, abd back in a couple hours, saying he’d gotten turned around. The person told him to just remember the water is to the west, the mountains to the east. Off he went again, only to come back in a few minutes saying, “There’s this hotel, an office building across that street, a church on that corner, and a strip joint on the other. No water, no mountains. How the hell do you find anything in this city?!” The reason I found it funny was that’s exactly how I know my way around, the Sound and the Cascades. I know where they are, even if I can’t see them. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419/74 "2010-04-10T06:03:28Z")
I’m lucky at the moment to be living in a city that is built largely on a consistent north-south, east-west grid. Not strictly so, but close enough to aid me in figuring out directions mentally. But even so, I subconsciously keep track of the sun and can look to it to confirm my orientation. I have gotten lost, from subtle curves in the paths I take turning me around, but most of the time I know which way I’m heading, and how to get back to where I began or back to familiar landmarks. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419/75 "2010-04-10T07:25:32Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > There was a comedian, I don’t remember who, that came to Seattle. He asked someone at his hotel how tofind some place. Off he went, abd back in a couple hours, saying he’d gotten turned around. The person told him to just remember the water is to the west, the mountains to the east. My mother used to say things like that - but the Olympics are to the west, the Cascades are to the east, the Sound is to the west and the lake is to the east (plus the big giant mountain is to the south, and the not quite so big, not quite so giant mountain is to the north ). Even if someone does find water or mountains, those bearings aren’t going to work. ---
**Author:** ![breaking-reality](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a8b319/32.png) [@breaking-reality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breaking-reality)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419/76 "2010-04-10T17:09:56Z")
> [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](#): > > I will? I know San Francisco pretty damn well but I don’t have all the major streets memorized. Then how are you able to give directions at all? If you don’t know where I’m coming from, how can you tell me to turn north on a specific street? And if you do know where I’m coming from, then you should generally know which direction I should turn, left or right, or at the very least you would know, “head towards the \_\_\_\_\_\_” and fill in with a generally recognizable landmark. When it comes to my area, and especially interstates, I do know which direction (north, south, east, or west) the streets are running, but when I’m giving directions, this confuses people. So once I know where they are at, I can generally tell them which directions (left or right) to turn and onto what streets. Depending where they’re coming from, this is fairly easy to do. When I am in a new town, though, I won’t simply know the direction the streets are going by where the sun is in the sky. Sure, I can figure it out after a while, but I don’t have the time to figure that out when I need to make a decision on which way to turn _right now_. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419/77 "2010-04-11T00:37:26Z")
> [@breaking-reality](#): > > Then how are you able to give directions at all? If you don’t know where I’m coming from, how can you tell me to turn north on a specific street? And if you do know where I’m coming from, then you should generally know which direction I should turn, left or right How can I know where you’re coming from if _you_ don’t know where you’re coming from? I mean, if you’re at the ballpark and you’re trying to get to the Castro, I know the way you _should_ be going, but if you’re calling me for directions I certainly shouldn’t assume you are where you should be. > [@](#): > > or at the very least you would know, “head towards the \_\_\_\_\_\_” and fill in with a generally recognizable landmark. I could do that with a decent amount of the city but if you’re in the middle of some random residential neighborhood, all I can really do is tell you to keep going straight until you hit something you’re able to describe to me, then try to figure it out. Plus, some cities are the same handful of strip malls and chain stores over and over. Seeing a Taco Bell and a Walgreens on the same block isn’t distinguishing at all (I’m looking at you, Las Vegas). ---
**Author:** ![GameHat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@GameHat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GameHat)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419/78 "2010-04-11T06:34:10Z")
> [@Lanzy](#): > > I’ve read that “most” women navigate by landmarks, men like compass directions. I’m a man and tend to think far more in terms of landmarks. And I have an absolutely lousy sense of direction. Unless I have a glaringly obvious cue (as in I’m headed right into the setting sun) I typically have no idea what cardinal direction I’m facing. My brain just doesn’t work that way. ---
**Author:** ![Perciful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Perciful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perciful)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419/79 "2010-04-11T14:08:37Z")
I know due North and South and the 'We" West and East but still always have trouble getting lost. If I drive it once though I know it for life. I learn by doing something rather then thinking it. What is it with Boston? Do they go out of their way to make it confusing? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![breaking-reality](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a8b319/32.png) [@breaking-reality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breaking-reality)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2010, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419/80 "2010-04-12T13:37:57Z")
> [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](#): > > I could do that with a decent amount of the city but if you’re in the middle of some random residential neighborhood, all I can really do is tell you to keep going straight until you hit something you’re able to describe to me, then try to figure it out. Then you wouldn’t know north or south either. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/during-daytime-can-you-tell-the-direction-youre-facing/535419.md?page=5)