North

North is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or Template:Wiki.

North is one of the four cardinal directions or Template:Wiki points. It is the Template:Wiki of south and is Template:Wiki to east and west.

By convention, the top side of a map is often north.

To go north using a Template:Wiki for Template:Wiki, set a bearing or Template:Wiki of 0° or 360°.

North is specifically the direction that, in Template:Wiki, is treated as the fundamental direction:

• North is used (explicitly or implicitly) to define all other directions.
• The (visual) top edges of maps usually correspond to the northern edge of the area represented, unless explicitly stated otherwise or landmarks are considered more useful for that territory than specific directions.
• On any rotating object, north denotes the side appearing to rotate counter-Template:Wiki when viewed from afar along the axis of rotation.

Template:Wiki

The word north is related to the Template:Wiki nord, both descending from the Template:Wiki unit ner-, meaning "down" (or "under"). (Presumably a natural primitive description of its Template:Wiki is "to the left of the rising Template:Wiki".)

Latin borealis is from Template:Wiki boreas "north wind, north", in mythology (according to Template:Wiki) personified as the son of the river-god Strymon, and father of Template:Wiki; septentrionalis is from septentriones, "the seven plow oxen", a name of Template:Wiki. Template:Wiki arktikos "northern" is named for the same constellation (cf. Template:Wiki).

Other languages have sometimes more interesting derivations. For example, in Lezgian kefer can mean both 'disbelief' and 'north', since north of Template:Wiki Template:Wiki there are areas inhabited by non-Muslim (until recently) Template:Wiki, such as Template:Wiki and Template:Wiki; as well as Template:Wiki Template:Wiki. In many languages of Template:Wiki, 'north' also means 'up'. In Hungarian the word for North is "észak" which is derived from "éjszaka" (night) as on the Template:Wiki the Template:Wiki never shines from North, therefore it's a realm of night.

Template:Wiki and declination

Template:Wiki is of interest because it is the direction indicated as north on a properly functioning (but uncorrected) magnetic Template:Wiki. The difference between it and Template:Wiki is called the magnetic 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 about Template:Wiki.

Maps intended for usage in orienteering by Template:Wiki will clearly indicate the local declination for easy Template:Wiki to Template:Wiki. Maps may also indicate grid north, which is a navigational term referring to the direction northwards along the grid lines of a map projection.

Roles of north as prime direction

The visible rotation of the night sky around the visible celestial pole provides a vivid Template:Wiki 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, prior to world-wide Template:Wiki, anything but an arbitrary one. On the contrary, it is of interest that Template:Wiki and Template:Wiki Template:Wiki even considered south as the proper top end for maps.

In Template:Wiki:

• Maps tend to be drawn for viewing with either Template:Wiki or Template:Wiki at the top
• Template:Wikis of the earth have the Template:Wiki at 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 Template:Wiki), 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 Template:Wiki,
  • occasionally with a single arrow oriented to the map's representation of Template:Wiki, or two arrows oriented to true and Template:Wiki respectively,
  • occasionally with a Template:Wiki, but if so, usually on a map with north at the top and usually with north decorated more prominently than any other Template:Wiki point.
• Up is a Template:Wiki for north. The notion that north should always be up and east at the right was established by the Template:Wiki astronomer Template:Wiki. The historian Template:Wiki suggests that perhaps this was because the better-known places in his world were in the Template:Wiki, and on a flat map these were most convenient for study if they were in the upper right-hand corner.

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 Template:Wiki definitions are, respectively, "where the Template:Wiki 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 the Template:Wiki, markedly over the course of the year.

Reasonably accurate Template:Wiki Template:Wiki, such as is usually attributed to Template:Wiki peoples or later Template:Wiki, 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 Template:Wiki 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 Template:Wiki (or moon).

Template:Wiki references

Being the "default" direction on the Template:Wiki, North is referred to frequently in Template:Wiki popular Template:Wiki. Some examples include:

• The phrase "north of X" is often used to mean "more than X" or "greater than X", i.e. "The world population is north of 7 billion people" or "north of 40 [years old]".

North is now being used as a name, for either a boy or girl. Recently Kim Kardashian and Kanye West named their daughter North.