The northern is a cardinal Point, opposed to the Southern.

Etymology

“Northern” is a noun or an invariable adjective.

Former high northern German coming from the linguistic unit proto-indo-European “ner-” which means “left”, undoubtedly referring to the left rising sun. In Latin Septemtriones which means the seven oxen . Formerly the Constellation, that we call from now on Petite Ourse, was called constellation of seven oxen. The the most brilliant star of this constellation is α Ursae Minoris, called the pole star, because its position indicates north with a good precision.

The north term is thus a out-of-date synonym of north, referring to this constellation which indicated the direction of north to the Romains; but the septentrional adjective which results from this very used remainder.

The expression North pole indicates two different things:

• the geographical north pole, located in the axis of rotation of the Earth, is fixed, in the Arctique;
• the magnetic north pole, whose position is pointed by the needle of a Boussole, moves according to variations of the Terrestrial magnetic field.

The Northern (with a Capital ) indicates the septentrional part of the world (also called Far North with the Canada) or of a country (e.g.: Amiens is a city of North , in opposition to Montpellier is a city of the South, or South ). It indicates also the French department, most Scandinavian of Metropolitan France.

The Northern is also used to indicate the countries known as developed, in opposition to the South, which indicates the countries of the Tiers-monde, said in the process of development or under development.

The Northern Cape is the course more in north of Europe, in Norway with 71°11 of Latitude.

The capital of North is the literal translation for Beijing (北京)

Geographical and magnetic

There exist two northern . First is magnetic, the cylindrical axis of Symétrie of the Magnetic field, second is geographical, the axis of rotation of the Ground. They are not at the same place, the magnetic north pole of the northern Hemisphere is located at 1900 km of the geographical north pole.

The difference in angle which one can observe on the compass between these two northern is called magnetic variation . This difference varies with time.

On the traditional charts and in particular the charts of the national geographical Institute French, the meridian lines (vertical black lines) point the true north (N.G.), it is necessary thus to take account of the magnetic variation to direct itself towards the chart with the assistance of compass (N.M.) the sketch located on the left indicates the value of the variation for the chart and a year given, because the magnetic pole migrates permanently, reducing each year the value of the variation (0,8 degree/year).

Certain cartographers circumvented this complication by building charts taking account of this variation: the north (NR) of the chart as well as the vertical lines in blue or black point the magnetic north (same manner that the needle of the compass).

It would seem that the magnetic north was, 780.000 years ago, in the geographical south. And it would not be the first time. Indeed, it was noted that our magnetic shield had been reduced for these 2000 last years and would arrive at the stage of swing (in a little more than one century). When this swing is finished, the layer will take again thickness and a compass will not indicate any more north, but the south. It will then be enough to color the other end of the needle so that it indicates north again.

Be-X-old: Поўнач Simple: North Zh-yue: 北

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