North

For other uses, seeNorth (disambiguation).

Northis one of the fourcompass pointsorcardinal directions.It is the opposite ofsouthand isperpendiculartoeastandwest.Northis anoun,adjective,oradverbindicatingdirectionorgeography.

A 16-pointcompass rosewith north highlighted and at the top

Etymology

The wordnorthisrelatedto theOld High Germannord,both descending from theProto-Indo-Europeanunit *ner-,meaning "left; below" as north is to left when facing the rising sun.Similarly, the other cardinal directions are also related to the sun's position.

The Latin wordborealiscomes from theGreekboreas"north wind, north", which, according toOvid,was personified as the wind-godBoreas,the father ofCalais and Zetes.Septentrionalisis fromseptentriones,"the seven plow oxen", a name ofUrsa Major.The Greek ἀρκτικός (arktikós) is named for the same constellation, and is the source of the English wordArctic.

Other languages have other derivations. For example, inLezgian,kefercan mean both "disbelief" and "north", since to the north of the MuslimLezgianhomeland there are areas formerly inhabited by non-Muslim Caucasian and Turkic peoples. In many languages ofMesoamerica,northalso means "up".

InRomanianthe old word for north ismĭazănoapte,fromLatinmediam noctemmeaningmidnightand in Hungarianisészak,which is derived froméjszaka( "night" ), since between theTropic of Cancerand theArctic CircletheSunnever shines from the north.

North is sometimes abbreviated asN.

Mapping and navigation

Byconvention,thetop or upward-facingside of amapis north.

To go north using a compass fornavigation,set abearingorazimuthof 0° or 360°. Traveling directly north traces ameridianline upwards.

North is specifically the direction that, inWestern culture,is consideredthefundamental direction:

• North is used (explicitly or implicitly) to define all other directions.
• The (visual) top edges ofmapsusually correspond to the northern edge of the area represented, unless explicitly stated otherwise orlandmarksare considered more useful for that territory than specific directions.
• On any rotating astronomical object,northoften denotes the side appearing to rotate counterclockwise when viewed from afar along the axis of rotation. However, theInternational Astronomical Union(IAU) defines thegeographic north poleof aplanetor any of its satellites in theSolar Systemas the planetary pole that is in the same celestial hemisphere, relative to theinvariable planeof the Solar System, as Earth's north pole.This means some objects, such asUranus,rotate in the retrograde direction: when seen from the IAU north, the spin is clockwise.

Magnetic north and declination

Magnetic northis of interest because it is the direction indicated as north on a properly functioning (but uncorrected) magneticcompass.The difference between it andtrue northis called themagnetic declination(or simply the declination where the context is clear). For many purposes and physical circumstances, the error in direction that results from ignoring the distinction is tolerable; in others a mental or instrument compensation, based on assumed knowledge of the applicable declination, can solve all the problems. But simple generalizations on the subject should be treated as unsound, and as likely to reflect popular misconceptions aboutterrestrial magnetism.

Maps intended for usage in orienteering by compass will clearly indicate the local declination for easy correction to true north. Maps may also indicategrid north,which is a navigational term referring to the direction northwards along the grid lines of amap projection.

Roles of north as prime direction

The visible rotation of the night sky around the visiblecelestial poleprovides a vivid metaphor of that direction corresponding to "up". Thus the choice of the north as corresponding to "up" in the northern hemisphere, or of south in that role in the southern, is, before worldwide communication, anything but an arbitrary one - at least for night-time astronomers.(Note: the southern hemisphere lacks a prominent visible analog tothe northern Pole Star.) On the contrary, Chinese and Islamic cultures considered south as the proper "top" end formaps.In the cultures ofPolynesia,where navigation played an important role, winds - prevailing local or ancestral - can definecardinal points.

InWestern culture:

• Maps tend to be drawn for viewing with either true north or magnetic north at the top.
• Globesof the earth have theNorth Poleat the top, or if the Earth's axis is represented as inclined from vertical (normally by the angle it has relative to the axis of the Earth's orbit), in the top half.
• Maps are usually labelled to indicate which direction on the map corresponds to a direction on the earth,
  • usually with a single arrow oriented to the map's representation of true north,
  • occasionally with a single arrow oriented to the map's representation of magnetic north, or two arrows oriented to true and magnetic north respectively,
  • occasionally with acompass rose,but if so, usually on a map with north at the top and usually with north decorated more prominently than any other compass point.
• "Up" is a metaphor for north. The notion that north should always be "up" and east at the right was established by the Greek astronomerPtolemy.The historianDaniel Boorstinsuggests that perhaps this was because the better-known places in his world were in the northern hemisphere, and on a flat map these were most convenient for study if they were in the upper right-hand corner.

North is quite often associated with colder climates because most of the world's populated land at high latitudes is located in theNorthern Hemisphere.The Arctic Circle passes through theArctic Ocean,Norway,Sweden,Finland,Russia,theUnited States(Alaska),Canada(Yukon,Northwest TerritoriesandNunavut),Denmark(Greenland) andIceland.

Roles of east and west as inherently subsidiary directions

While the choice of north over south as prime direction reflects quite arbitrary historical factors,east and west are not nearly as natural alternatives as first glance might suggest. Their folk definitions are, respectively, "where the sun rises" and "where it sets". Except on the Equator, however, these definitions, taken together, would imply that

• east and west would not be 180 degrees apart, but instead would differ from that by up to twice the degrees of latitude of the location in question, and
• they would each move slightly from day to day and, in thetemperate zones,markedly over the course of the year.

Reasonably accurate folk astronomy, such as is usually attributed toStone Agepeoples or laterCelts,would arrive at east and west by noting the directions of rising and setting (preferably more than once each) and choosing as prime direction one of the two mutually opposite directions that lie halfway between those two. The true folk-astronomical definitions of east and west are "the directions, a right angle from the prime direction, that are closest to the rising and setting, respectively, of the sun (or moon).

Cultural references

Being the "default" direction on the compass, north is referred to frequently in Western popular culture. Some examples include:

• "North of X" is a phrase often used by Americans to mean "more than X" or "greater than X" in relation to the conventional direction of north being upwards, i.e. "The world population is north of 7 billion people" or "north of 40 [years old]".

See also

• Nordicity
• List of northernmost items
• Northing
• Northern Light
• Septentrional

External links

• The dictionary definition ofnorthat Wiktionary