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If you go to shops that sell variety of compass, you will find that those made in China actually points to South while others that are not made from China point to North.
I almost thought that the South pointing ones are not well-made until the explaination from the sales staff.:-P
Oh I thought the chinese ones are pointing to the East, since the Chinese always said East-South-West-North :blink:
are you talking about the mahjong’s placement of the directions? :oo:
Opps, silly me, yup you are right, I mixed up mahjong’s directional winds with compass, haha… :-$
Interesting fact about compass:
The universe is left-handed. The North Pole is not a ‘north pole’. The real North Pole (the magnetic north pole) is what we call the South Pole.
A western compass needle points to the geographic north, but it is actually pointing at the magnetic south.
When Chinese first invented the compass, the needle was a magnetized ladle or spoon that symbolized many things, including the timekeeping Ladle in the skies (successively Doumou, Nandou, and Beidou). The spoon pointed to geographic south, which is why its name is “the south-pointing spoon.†Chinese compasses have always pointed to the magnetic north pole, which we call the geographic South Pole.
When someone talks about the qualities of a polar orientation, ask them whether they mean magnetic or geographic. As you can see, it makes a difference.
Haha, yes I’ve heard a long time ago that there’s more to it than it meets the eye when it comes to the compass. Been fascinated, but I don’t think I really got a grasp of it then, neither now even after reading the explanatory notes above, hahaha! Think I was left with a deep impression though, that the Chinese are brilliant…
Geographic vs magnetic… ermm… ???!? Geography is something that is intriguing but not to be understood, so is the compass, and maps! :tongue:
Haha… When i wrote the dialogue, I was focusing on the truth that when a compass needle points north, it must point south too – the other way. I thought Westerners prefer to look at the northern direction, while the Chinese the southern! They seem like opposite directions but have similar implications. Didn’t know it’s so much more complex!
(O) < two-handed clock instead of single-handed compass here