I can never remember latitude and longitude, which is which.
One of them is the number of degrees north or south of the equator, and the other one is the number of degrees east or west of something else. Like if you went ninety degrees north, you would be at the North Pole. If you went 60 degrees north you would be at the southern tip of Lake Ladoga in Russia, where the famous Battle on the Ice
took place and Alexander Nevsky won. He was fighting either the Swedes or the Teutonic Knights, I forget which. Or maybe it was another, but nearby lake. Or you could be, if you were at 60 degrees north of the equator, not too far from Stockholm, and north of Oslo. Or you might be at Cape Farewell, the southern tip of Greenland. Maybe the Greenwich line or the International Date Line marks how far east or west you would be. Also, suppose you were in a helicopter over the north pole: which way would the earth be rotating? I say it would be counterclockwise. Now suppose you flew in the helicopter down to be over the South Pole. Now which way would you see the earth to be rotating? Now it would be clockwise. Howefer, my friend says clockwise and counterclockwise are two things like chirality in crystals, etc. and are absolute, not relative to your helicopter. And seashells mainly spiral one way and not the other, but some do and nobody knows why.
Latitude = north/south of the equator.
Longitude = west/east of Greenwich (though this is arbitrary of course).
If you were above the north pole the Earth would turn counterclockwise. Above the south pole, clockwise.
I hope I’m right…
ramble much, don?
Observation of sun, moon, etc. tells us the earth rotates east to west, so if you have a globe in your hands that’s spinning like that and you look from the top, yes, it will be counterclockwise, and yes it will be clockwise if you look at it from the bottom.
If your friend doesn’t believe you, get a sit 'n spin, place it on a glass floor (or a glass ceiling) and have your friend look at it from above and below.
As for latitude, try and remember that ‘latitude’ sounds like ‘ladder’, which goes up&down.
I would tend to think that “clockwise” and “counterclockwise” would certainly be relative to point of view from which you are looking at something. I agree with scratch1300 that at the north pole the Earth would appear to rotate counterclockwise and above the south pole, the Earth would appear to rotate clockwise.
Or that all lines of “longitude” are “long”. A short but very interesting and readable book that will make it impossible for you ever to get confused about this again in “Longitude” by Dava Sobel (which was also an A&E or TNT original movie with Jeremey Irons and Michael Gambon, IIRC).
"Long"itude lines are "long"er than latitude lines (except the Equator, which you ought to know without prompting).
“Clockwise” and “counterclockwise” are not absolute properties of spinning objects, but depend on where you are, relative to the think that’s spinning. Imagine being behind a clock with a transparent face. The hands would be moving counterclockwise from your point of view. (At this point, you might want to redefine the term “clockwise,” but that wouldn’t really change anything.)
Regarding the Earth’s spinning, imagine that you have a transparent globe of the Earth, so that when looking down at the North Pole, you can see through to the South Pole as well. They would both be turning counterclockwise. And if you flip the globe over, and look down onto the South Pole, both poles will be turning clockwise.
I always remember that “latitude” is almost like “altitude”, and North-South is always depicted as up-down on maps.
I swear this was how I was taught:
Lat(itude) rhymes with Fat… A fat person would be wide around… not up and down…
Wait a sec, I guess I was wrong… cause apparently latitude lines go up and down… nevermind me… sorry about that.
c_goat, shoulda stopped while you were ahead…
I know… I’m kinda ashamed of that post up there…
It’s late in the afternoon, I get kinda sleepy after lunch.
;j - Just wanted to try that one
The direction of rotation of the globe is something relative? huh? relative to what? Does that mean that you can also consider it is not rotating? Maybe Galileo was wrong after all?
I have traveled quite a bit and everywhere I have been the sun and other celestial bodies (Sandra Bullock excepted) rise in the East and set in the West.
I am quite sure that if I were (say) 10,000 miles directly above the North Pole facing the Sun or a distant star and I looked down at the Earth, I would see it rotating counterclockwise.
Where’s the relativity?
The relativity is your position in relation to the earth. That’s why it appears to move counterclockwise (or anti-clockwise, if you’re British) if you’re above it, but clockwise if you’re below it. It’s the same thing with a screw. You turn a thumbscrew, for example, counterclockwise to loosen it, but if you were to look at it from in front of the screw (not behind it as you would normally do), it would be clockwise.
>> The relativity is your position in relation to the earth
Oh, come on! So I guess, by the same reckoning, I can say I am looking at a horse that is made wrong because I can see the tail in the front and the head is at the other end, where the tail should be. Since, everything is relative, from where I am sitting the horse is clearly made wrong, with the ends switched.
Seriously now, we all agree that from the N pole the Globe rotates counterclockwise. There is nothing relative about that.
If you go to the S pole it is turning the wrong way in the same sense that the horse is made back to front.
Is North up or down? Or is it relative? If I’m at the South Pole is East to the right and West to the left? Or are they both up as well?
I really need some help 
Hey Colin, The Bear is white.
The relativity is based on how the viewer perceives the motion of the sun, you Borealist. Does the sun move from left to right? Or from right to left? Outside Cleveland, the sun clearly moves left to right (especially in another two months when it will drag along just a bit over the horizon), however, I’m fairly sure that viewed from Buenos Aires or Cape Town or Sydney, the sun moves from right to left (especially around June 21).
I didn’t see anything posted that suggested anything more “relative” than that.
Sorry about the lateness of this reply. I’ve been using a company computer and I don’t work for the same company that Dilbert works for, and I’ve just seen the recent posts. Yes, I believe Sailor that you can call the tail the front and the head the back. It’s just a matter of terminology. But more to the point, the horse is not rotating. The direction of rotation, whether clockwise or counterclockwise, is relative to the observer.