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Comment by nmeofthestate | Hacker News Reader

This is a great idea. While we're at it, we should standardise "up" so everyone is on the same page regardless of their location. "Up" should be the vector pointing at Alpha Centauri. This would make it so much easier for people around the world to talk about directions.

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I was on an airliner getting ready for takeoff, the captain gives his announcement we are flying to such and such will be there in 3 hours etc.

This was in the USA and the captain had an australian accent. At the end of his announcement he said "And to the passenger that expressed concern, please be assured that I have received extensive training as to the direction of "up" in the northern hemisphere.

A "vector pointing at Alpha Centauri" is an incomplete definition, since a vector has a magnitude and direction. Also, Alpha Centauri has a declination of –60° 50′ 02.3737″, which makes it necessary to adjust for the time of the day. That would make people dizzy, which is unfortunate.

So I propose the following very simple definition:

Up - The direction defined by the position vector of Polaris with reference to the center of the Earth (not to be confused with North).

Down - The direction opposite of Up (See also: South).

> since a vector has a magnitude and direction.

How is the direction represented?

A normalized vector; i.e. a vector with magnitude 1.

This does give us the opportunity for international compromise.

Since GMT is the time in England, and the meter is (more or less) 3 Parisian feet, we should at least standardize "up" as the direction the Empire State Building goes.

This is a perfect analogy that shows the stupidity of the idea!!!

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