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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 1786391" data-attributes="member: 177">Ah, okay.&nbsp; I was looking at it considering that the people who live on the planet, and thus actually use the words North and East, don't generally care about how it orbits, even if they had a clue.&nbsp; They'd design their coordinates based upon how they're used.There's no absolute up/down, or North/South.&nbsp; But there are still useful ones - you can define a planetary north and south.&nbsp; Or a solar one.&nbsp; Or a galactic one.&nbsp; And all can help you navigate.&nbsp; The trick is choosing the right one for the situation.Here's the clincher - on Earth, we use a coordinate system that is fixed with respect to the ground.&nbsp; Think, though, about what happens if you don't do that.&nbsp; Fix the coordinates out in space, and let the planet move around...&nbsp; That means that directions will change as the planet moves!&nbsp; The farm that's to the north during the day will be to the south at night.&nbsp; And similar wierdness happens as the time of year changes.If you thought New Englanders were bad at giving directions, the folks on this planet will have 'em beat!&nbsp; <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 1786391, member: 177"] Ah, okay. I was looking at it considering that the people who live on the planet, and thus actually use the words North and East, don't generally care about how it orbits, even if they had a clue. They'd design their coordinates based upon how they're used. There's no [i]absolute[/i] up/down, or North/South. But there are still useful ones - you can define a planetary north and south. Or a solar one. Or a galactic one. And all can help you navigate. The trick is choosing the right one for the situation. Here's the clincher - on Earth, we use a coordinate system that is fixed with respect to the ground. Think, though, about what happens if you don't do that. Fix the coordinates out in space, and let the planet move around... That means that directions will change as the planet moves! The farm that's to the north during the day will be to the south at night. And similar wierdness happens as the time of year changes. If you thought New Englanders were bad at giving directions, the folks on this planet will have 'em beat! :) [/QUOTE]

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