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by evo
1102 days ago
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This gave me a bunch of insight into the workings of those old survival tricks of using analog watch hands to find cardinal directions: - Since the video starts at solar noon, the sun is always at 12:00 relative to the video. - Swapping reference frames, if you had a clock face with 24 hours on it, and aligned the "12:00" to point at the equator, the "0:00-12:00" axis would define a longitudinal plane through the Earth, and the hour hand would define a second plane that would intersect with the sun--the hour hand would "follow" the sun. - Conversely, if you pointed your clock's hour hand at the sun, you would know your "12:00" would be due north/south (depending on hemisphere). - The same is true for conventional 12-hour watches and clocks, but you must find the "half-way" mark between your hour hand and noon, because the hour hand is moving at twice the speed relative to the hypothetical 24-hour clock. Neat! |
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Not quite. In the southern hemisphere the sun moves 'backwards', so you have to flip the clock backwards, or instead point the 12:00 mark at the sun and then the hour hand shows north/south.