Beat me to it. I was going to point out that there's a ye olde black and white photo in my town's information centre of that one time we had snow here!
As an Aussie living on the north side, the water spins the wrong way down the plug hole. It is only a tendency, but it happens often enough to not be a random direction. And the left/right thing ... It took ages to get used to the idea that in the northern hemisphere, your image in a mirror is reversed.
Water spin has been debunked, the Coriolis force is just too weak to have any noticeable effect over the minor non-symmetries of the vessel and random currents in the water
mirrors don't flip images. Take a word written on a wall. Face it. point to the perpendicular wall on the side of the first letter. Now turn 180 degrees (imagine there's a mirror there) and look at the mirror on the opposite wall. Do the same thing, point to the perpendicular wall on the side of the first letter of the word. You are now pointing at the exact same wall as last time. The mirror didn't reverse anything, it's you who's backwards.
Feynman talks about this in his "Symmetry" lecture, and how there's no way to discern "left" from "right" without a shared artifact. (You can try to get clever and use a magnet, but there's also no way to discern magnetic north from south without a shared artifact, so that's ultimately the same convention.) It's like how any complex number can only be a±bi; a+bi doesn't actually mean anything by itself.
"sun comes up on the right and goes counterclockwise through the sky instead of coming up on the left and going clockwise as I have seen it do all my life, and that was pretty interesting." That got me too back then, it's funny how your orientation relies on the sun doing the "right" thing
I think sun position at noon/during the day would trip up any person from north if someone would ask them "point to south" while being in Australia or south hemisphere. I can imagine because of that the effect of wrong side sun coming up can be rather strong.
I recently realised this too, while trying to integrate moon phases into my app. The ASCII emoji names for the 1st and last quarter moon are completely reversed and that makes complete sense since we're technically upside down.
( ||) First quarter in Northern Hemisphere, 3rd (or last) quarter in Southern
(|| ) Last quarter in Northern Hemisphere, 1st in Southern
The left/right thing depends on what direction you’re bloody well facing. Like literally go out at dawn on any given day in any given hemisphere and turn until the sun is rising on your left and it will, without fail, set on your right… unless you turn 180 degrees.
If you’re facing south and approaching the equator from the north the sun will rise to port (left) and set on your starboard (right) side… cross the equator and it will still do so… cross the pole and NOW it will reverse.
If you’re facing towards the sun you’re rotating, facing west at dawn and east at dusk. If you’re above the Tropic of Cancer you’ll be rotating clockwise through facing south at noon… if you’re below the Tropic of Cancer you’ll be rotating anticlockwise through facing north at noon. If you’re between the Tropics you’re spin will be determined by the season… if you’re on the equator you’ll have spent half the year spinning clockwise, half spinning anti clockwise, and one very confusing day not spinning at all but pitching (or rolling, depending on your starting position).
What won’t happen is that you start the day on one side of the equator, facing towards a pole which that east and dawn is on your left and, never changing your facing but proceeding to the other side of the equator, expect the sun to set on your left.
The article implies that left and right flip when you pass the equator… they don’t. There’s no natural relationship between your hands position relative to the axis of your nose and the planet’s rotation relative to the sun.
Seasons are reversed, so that winter in the Northern Hemisphere is summer in the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa.
But our holidays and working calendar is the same as in the Northern Hemisphere.
So whereas Americans are celebrating Christmas and taking a break during their coldest part of the year, and resting up, we Australian's continue to work throughout our winter, which is in July.
Readit News
It may surprise you to learn that Australians don't celebrate the American day of independence lol
(EDIT: HN doesn't like emojis, sorry)
(EDIT 2: replaced emojis with links to Emojipedia)
( ||) First quarter in Northern Hemisphere, 3rd (or last) quarter in Southern (|| ) Last quarter in Northern Hemisphere, 1st in Southern
If you’re facing south and approaching the equator from the north the sun will rise to port (left) and set on your starboard (right) side… cross the equator and it will still do so… cross the pole and NOW it will reverse.
What won’t happen is that you start the day on one side of the equator, facing towards a pole which that east and dawn is on your left and, never changing your facing but proceeding to the other side of the equator, expect the sun to set on your left.
The article implies that left and right flip when you pass the equator… they don’t. There’s no natural relationship between your hands position relative to the axis of your nose and the planet’s rotation relative to the sun.
Deleted Comment
But our holidays and working calendar is the same as in the Northern Hemisphere.
So whereas Americans are celebrating Christmas and taking a break during their coldest part of the year, and resting up, we Australian's continue to work throughout our winter, which is in July.