Cardinal direction

The directional names are routinely associated with azimuths, the angle of rotation (in degrees) in the unit circle over the horizontal plane.

It is a necessary step for navigational calculations (derived from trigonometry) and for use with Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers.

Systems with five cardinal points (four directions and the center) include those from pre-modern China, as well as traditional Turkic, Tibetan and Ainu cultures.

In Chinese tradition, the five cardinal point system is related to I Ching, the Wu Xing and the five naked-eye planets.

In traditional Chinese astrology, the zodiacal belt is divided into the four constellation groups corresponding to the directions.

[11][12] East: Green (青 "qīng" corresponds to both green and blue); Spring; Wood South: Red; Summer; Fire West: White; Autumn; Metal North: Black; Winter; Water Center: Yellow; Earth Countries where Arabic is used refer to the cardinal directions as Ash Shamal (N), Al Gharb (W), Ash Sharq (E) and Al Janoob (S).

In Mesoamerica and North America, a number of traditional indigenous cosmologies include four cardinal directions and a center.

In Japanese, there is the interesting situation that native Japanese words (yamato kotoba, kun readings of kanji) are used for the cardinal directions (such as minami for 南, south), but borrowed Chinese words (on readings of kanji) are used for intercardinal directions (such as tō-nan for 東南, southeast, lit.

[dubious – discuss] In the Malay language, adding laut (sea) to either east (timur) or west (barat) results in northeast or northwest, respectively, whereas adding daya to west (giving barat daya) results in southwest.

Sanskrit and other Indian languages that borrow from it use the names of the gods associated with each direction: east (Indra), southeast (Agni), south (Yama/Dharma), southwest (Nirrti), west (Varuna), northwest (Vayu), north (Kubera/Heaven) and northeast (Ishana/Shiva).

[27][28][35] Use of the compass directions is common and deeply embedded in European and Chinese culture (see south-pointing chariot).

Some other cultures make greater use of other referents, such as toward the sea or toward the mountains (Hawaii, Bali), or upstream and downstream (most notably in ancient Egypt, also in the Yurok and Karuk languages).

Lengo (Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands) has four non-compass directions: landward, seaward, upcoast, and downcoast.