[Avodah] Davening direction

[Zev Sero]

On 7/11/22 11:58, Micha Berger via Avodah wrote:
> The Mercator Projection became popular because it helps sailors navigate.
> RET finds following rhumb lines more intuitive for the same reason sailors
> preferred following rhumb lines. The popularity of Mercator Projection
> disn't cause the intuition. The intuition is more innate than that,
> and it caused the popularity of a rhumb line preserving projection.

I think you have that backwards.   Rhumb lines are useful only to 
sailors who are navigating by compass.  It is the compass, not some 
innate intuition, that makes them useful.  Since none of us are sailors, 
and we do not navigate by compass, there only reason why we would find 
rhumb lines intuitive is that we have had the Mercator world map drummed 
into our consciousness.

-- 
Zev Sero            “Were we directed from Washington when to sow
zev at sero.name       and when to reap, we should soon want bread.”
		    –Thomas Jefferson: Autobiography, 1821.