The article didn’t make its point precisely because it failed to state a starting orientation, rendering left and right meaningless… assuming Australians all face the same direction at dawn, or are stupid enough to stare at the sun at any given moment of their day in the first place, doesn’t help the point. The actual point they intended to make was that in Australia the path the sun traces through the sky is always to the north of your position, whereas for someone in America or Europe it’s to the south, but neither of these has the slightest thing to do with left and right, neither of which exists without a subjective orientation that cannot be assumed by the reader.
Directions like North, South, East, and West are relative to the planet. Clockwise and anticlockwise are relative to the clock face. Left and right are relative to the observer’s subjective position. Talking about the sun’s position and arc in terms of left and right is acting like the universe is solipsocentric.
Maybe only we who live on boats get this in our bones?
Directions like North, South, East, and West are relative to the planet. Clockwise and anticlockwise are relative to the clock face. Left and right are relative to the observer’s subjective position. Talking about the sun’s position and arc in terms of left and right is acting like the universe is solipsocentric.
Maybe only we who live on boats get this in our bones?