How did people refer to clockwise movement before the invention of the clock?
Was there an alternative adjective to "clockwise" other than "the rotation you take around left hand"?
Also, how did all watch companies around the world agree on what the direction of "clockwise" is?
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Well, clocks are just mechanical sundials. Before clockwise, there was sunwise (or deosil), and clocks' movements are based off of the movement of a shadow across a sundial.
Used to be sunwise and counter-sunwise.
does that mean that "clockwise" in the southern hemisphere is backwards?
Yes, when you are in the northern hemisphere, a sundial shadow falls to the north of the gnomon (the thing that makes a shadow). This makes the shadow move from the northwest to north to northeast over a day, which is clockwise. In the southern hemisphere, the shadow from the gnomon falls to the south, so it starts in the southwest and moves to the south and then southeast, which is anticlockwise.
The most obvious way to see this is the photo of the sundial in Perth, where the hours run anticlockwise.
https://twitter.com/culturaltutor/status/1605415745093083137?lang=en https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundial#In_the_Southern_Hemisphere https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundial#/media/File:Sundial_in_Supreme_Court_Gardens,_Perth.jpg
Yes, because of the Coriolis effect (/j)
No, because the earth is still rotating the same direction in the southern hemisphere
I read this article and I'm more confused now lol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundial#In_the_Southern_Hemisphere
EDIT: The last sentience sums it up well tho:
Well well, learn something new everyday.
Pretty weird to think about. And about them having to either face their relevant poles or the equator for them to work equivalently
Northern sundials (both vertically mounted and horizontal versions) need to be pointed North, whereas Southern sundials need to be pointed South. The article is stating that Southern horizontal versions can be mounted vertically in the Nothern hemisphere but must be pointed South. I hope that helps, I had to re-read it a few times, myself.