Only One Direction on Planet Earth

Everybody knows the cardinal directions: North, South, East, and West. However, there are two locations on planet Earth in which you can only go in one direction. Nope. It’s not at the equator.

The North Pole

Even though Earth is basically a sphere (it’s actually a squashed sphere bulging at the equator) and there theoretically isn’t a top, sides, or bottom, humans have designated poles that intersect the Earth’s axis of rotation. We call the poles the North Pole and the South Pole. At the North Pole there is no land to speak of; it’s a large floating sheet of ice. But, there is land at the South Pole we call Antarctica. If someone was standing exactly at the North Pole the only direction they could initially walk would be south. Similarly, if at the South Pole one could only walk north. When you think about this it will become apparent. The only hard part is getting to the poles to actually try this out.

Let’s digress a bit. Santa lives at the North Pole. Does he live right at the pole or nearby? I would argue nobody knows. But we can follow his paths during the Christmas season by visiting a site run by NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command): noradsanta.org.

Read all about the North Pole.

NORAD Tracks Santa. Happy Holidays!