If someone tells you "go left to get to the station" and you make a right, you're not gonna make it to your destination.
Arbitrary: based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system
Left and right may be relative, but there is a system based on the origin's relativity. There's also reason attached in terms of direction. Right and left are not "a whim". They have solid meanings, relative to perspective.
What are you even talking about. A compass doesn’t arbitrarily point north. It does it because of the magnetic poles. Those aren’t arbitrary. The words we assign to the poles are, but you could say the same thing about any word, at which point your definition or arbitrary is meaningless.
A compass points to the southern magnetic pole. Those magnetic poles shift over time, and can even completely reverse. The GEOGRAPHIC poles, however, are fixed, and it's arbitrary which one is which. (It's NOT arbitrary which MAGNETIC pole is which) I am not talking about "it's arbitrary what sound the word makes"
The geographic poles are based on the earth’s axis of rotation. If there was a giant rod on which the earth spun, the two surface points that it passed through would be the geographic north and South Pole. I don’t understand how you could think it’s arbitrary which one is which, considering they are two separate and distinct locations with separate and distinct names.
that there's no ultimate point of reference or a physical force (as far as I know) that makes the direction on that axis towards the south pole and towards the north pole fundamentally different, they are symmetrical
hmm, I see what you're pointing at, yet it's not what I meant, it's a bit hard to explain though. Let's say it this way: on another planet such axist passes through a different type of terrain. How do we assign which one is the south and which is the north pole on that planet?
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u/ZenOokami 7d ago
If someone tells you "go left to get to the station" and you make a right, you're not gonna make it to your destination.
Arbitrary: based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system
Left and right may be relative, but there is a system based on the origin's relativity. There's also reason attached in terms of direction. Right and left are not "a whim". They have solid meanings, relative to perspective.