Day 12: The Greenland Sea

Day 12 — The Greenland Sea. Speaking of the North Pole: during a walk on Deck 4 I noticed that every other walker was going laps in the same direction as us — counterclockwise. And I smiled, satisfied that our movement was in harmony with the cosmic order of the solar system.

Because — with the exception of a few accidents that left some planets more or less tilted on their side (23.5° in our planet's case, which is why we haven't seen nighttime darkness since crossing the Arctic Circle about a week ago — because it's summer, and Earth's axis is tilted with the North toward the Sun, while the terminator, the line between day and night, stays vertical relative to the solar system's plane and remains outside the Arctic Circle regardless of Earth's rotation on its own axis, and we've been inside the Arctic Circle for a week now!) — so, with a few exceptions, nearly everything in our solar system, from our perspective in the northern hemisphere, or from a cosmic perspective looking down from above the North Pole: it all spins counterclockwise.

Our planet around its own axis, our planet around the Sun, the Moon around its own axis, the Moon around the Earth, the rest of the planets around their own axes, the rest of the planets around the Sun, even the Sun itself around its own axis! Notable exceptions: Venus, which spins "backward" but very slowly on its own axis, though normally around the Sun, and Uranus, which got knocked sideways and spins lying on its side. Because accidents are a universal truth.

Of course, from above the South Pole — because in outer space there's no up or down, and when you're "below the South Pole" in space you're actually still "above" it — everything's reversed: it all spins clockwise.

So if you're ever lost in space and can't tell whether you're "above" or "below" the solar system, it's very simple: look at how everything's spinning and you'll know instantly. Clockwise: you're in the South. Counterclockwise: you're in the North.

Now here's an even better question: what if you're even more lost than that, and you're looking at a different solar system entirely, not ours? How does it work there? Say you discover a new planet and watch how it spins, but you don't know anything else about it — how do you know where its South Pole is, and where its North Pole is?

Very simple! I'll now give you a method you'll never forget, and you'll always know where the South and North Pole are on any planet or celestial body in the universe, and you'll never be able to get lost again. All you have to do is follow these steps:

1. Give this post a like 😉
2. Take a good look at what you just did: you showed your appreciation with a right-hand gesture — fist closed, thumb up! Right? Make a fist with your right hand, extend your thumb upward, and take a good look at it!
3. Now imagine your fist is the new, unknown planet you've discovered, okay? Well: the curl of your fingers shows you the direction that planet spins on its own axis. And your extended thumb points toward that planet's North Pole.

It's called the "right-hand rule," and it holds for any object in the Universe, from the smallest asteroid to the largest galaxy.

For a moment I believed it even held for the walkers on the deck of a cruise ship in the northern waters inside the Arctic Circle, and that the walkers, somehow connected to the Universe, felt at a molecular level this universal directive that has governed our solar system for 4.5 billion years, ever since it formed from a primordial cloud of dust spinning in that same direction, and had no choice but to obey it.

In reality, though, as usual in life, the logical principle known as "Occam's Razor" tells us that the simplest explanation is usually the right one.

And the simplest explanation became obvious on my next lap: a sign on the wall, indicating the direction runners should go. Which — no surprise on a ship full of Germans — everyone follows, not just the runners.

But now I sit here wondering, over a cup of ginger tea in the middle of the Greenland Sea: whoever put up that sign, and decided the running direction should be counterclockwise… did they feel it at a molecular level too?

🌏🌍🌎