Every 200 000 years or so, the magnetic poles of the earth flip. The north magnetic pole becomes the south magnetic pole and vice versa.
I think a priority after such an event would be to make our compasses still work. In order for them to work, north must become south and south must become north.
The first thing we must change are our globes. We would have to flip them so Antarctica is on the top. But scratch that name. The arctic would now be the antarctic and so I think we would have to change the name of the continent at earth’s top to Arctica.
Map books would have to be flipped, too. It would be prohibitively expensive to reprint all the new atlases right away so for the first few years we could just flip the atlases and stroke out the N and S in the legend and replace it with the opposite.
This would finally be fair for the 200 000 years or maybe less that southern countries spent at the bottom of all maps and globes. It would be your chance to shine, Australia. Instead of being called Down Under you could now be called Up Over. Lord it over us in the south during your 200 000 year reign.
Or we could at last make the science right. The magnet in the compass is built so the magnet’s north end is attracted north. A magnet’s north is attracted to another magnet’s south. If we view the earth as a gigantic magnet this means that Earth’s magnetic north pole is today very near the south pole. Our north end of the compass is really pointing to Earth’s south magnetic pole which is in the north.
Finally there would be harmony with all magnets when the earth magnetic poles flipped. The north of the compass would point south which is how magnets work. They always are attracted to the other pole. Maybe this science would be easier to learn.
Wait. This might confuse the populace even more than the flipping of atlases would cause. So the land Up Over finally gets its shot. It’s decided then.
