Question Time!

[such_heights]

Calling my geologically inclined friends: please excuse a little lazy-webbing and help me resolve a debate with my father. Is there a non-arbritrary way of distinguishing a planet's north from its south, one that doesn't simply rely on convention? And if not, does that make all sci-fi talk of an unhabitated planet's southern hemisphere etc completely nonsensical?

... These are the things that keep me up at night.

Comments

[zahrawithaz.livejournal.com]

It's also relatively recent and culturally specific. Maps drawn in Europe in the Middle Ages (usually called T-and-O maps, because they look like T inside a giant O) can point in any direction, but most often put East at the top--where the draftsmen thought Paradise was located--which meant that Europe was crammed into the lower left-hand corner.

[kel_reiley]

that makes sense