@urstill, Ain't north the point where magnets align themselves to?north & south?
Where would a compas would be pointing to if you were to stand on the north pole?

North is not up, we just take up to be north.
The far East people,their east is the Americas,to the Koreans, Russia is their north,to the Vladvostoks,Korean peninsula is their south.

Are guys suggesting if Africa was shown as bigger on the maps,then we would be developed? I don't get it.

The whole debate is nothing more than wonder. Like wondering how big the universe is, or whether there is an end to it and what lies beyond.

In short, chasing tails.

have you guys read everything I have written?

@Masukuma.. Take a joke. Doesn't demean the importance of what you've illuminated. We learn, we teach our kids.. Somewhere down the line, we'll be at par with the world

Positioning north at the top is NOT a product of geopolitics nor is it a result of some white supremacist ideology!

It comes out of simple geometry and physics!

You've all be to school so you've heard of the x, y, z axes. X and y lie on the horizontal plane while z points up.

If you ask me why z is drawn upward, I will ask you why we write left to right! BTW there is a logical reason why!

Back to x, y, z: the 3 axes are always drawn in a manner that conforms to a "right handed set". That is, they mimic the motion of a right handed screw.

Imagine a screw placed along the z axis with its head sitting at the origin of the three axes. If it is rotated in a motion that moves from x to y, it will drift up along the z axis; that is upward.



The figure on the left forms a left handed set while that on the right is a right handed set.

Since 85% of the world population is right handed, the standard convention is the right handed set..... sorry, lefties; it's the tyranny of numbers!

Now think about how the earth rotates... from west to east (that's why we see the sun moving from east to west). If it was a right handed screw, which way would it drift: northward or southward?
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Northwards, of course.

Thus if we drew the 3 axes starting from the centre of the planet, x and y would lie on the equatorial plane while z would point northwards...

Like this......







But on paper, z points up; therefore north should be drawn pointing up.

Case closed.

I am impressed by the depth and breadth of this discussion. The contrasts drawn between Africa and the rest of the world have got me interested in history in a way that I haven't been before. It seems to me that history has such enormous influence on the present and the future. And that if a people should change the current course of their society, they must first comprehend their history in very critical terms.

it depends on where they were! if you launch from the equator as the rocket dips south wards - the earth behind you will be as seen.

secondly, its not that the west deliberately drew the maps to mess up our minds but rather - what the effect of drawing the map with North on the top has.
ps...

It is human nature, many nations or peoples are envious of any country that is superpower. That is why there is struggle for economic and military dominance everywhere as a means to superpower status. This economic and military competition is the reason why the superpower trophy has changed hands several times throughout human history.
By the end of the 19th century Germany and the United States had eroded Britain's economic lead. Subsequent military and economic tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War. The First World War can therefore be seen as a transition from Britain as superpower to either Germany or US. Of course Germany lost the battle. After Second World War, the USSR came calling for the trophy hence the onset of transition period marked by the cold war. USSR lost the battle. As we speak, China is aiming for the trophy.
As you can see, transition period from one superpower to another is very unsettling and is one factor that can lead to Third World War.
But come to think of it, where would we be without this kind of competition throughout human history? Not very far from Dark Ages in my view.

east is nor RIGHT! - tafakari hayo!

My point exactly! Dark ages is good.. Me, my goats, my crops and bare chested beauties running around. Isn't that the life?

Now I'm stuck with this modern times.. STDs, cancer, stress and unnecessary thinking! Think about it, the more we think we are going forward, the more we go back!