Direction sense?

J

Jared

Joined
Jan 20, 2000
Messages
6
Wow, here's something I'd never thought to learn in a geology class.

Okay, so iron is magnetic, right?
Well, the reason birds know how to migrate is because of the iron in their blood! They have an innate sense of where 'north' is, because their iron is attracted to it.

That's why more men have 'intuitive' direction sense - they have more iron in their blood than women. I'm not talking about 'pull over and ask direcitons, dear' type of direction sense, but just a 'feeling' of 'north's that way', y'know?

So I was thinking, would it be a good idea to stock up on iron before venturing into the woods? Maybe take an iron pill before each camping trip or something? I wonder if this would have any effect?

Anyway, just a pretty cool concept that got me thinking ...
 
Well, if you take too much iron, you may only be able to travel in a northerly direction. Also, make sure you take or bring a laxative - not only is the iron magnetic, it's binding.

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It's not the pace of life that concerns me, It's the sudden stop at the end.
 
if that's the case, i'm probably dead from lack of sufficient iron in my bloodstream, because my sense of direction is TERRIBLE with regard to the cardinal directions. If you walk me around in the woods for an hour, i can tell you immediately how to get back to where we started, but I can't tell you where north is without making a compass.

 
Sorry, it doesn't work that way. The birds' iron is in their brains, not just their blood. And it's the iron in their brains that does it. Humans don't have this feature (at least, not significantly enough to notice).

And males have no more inherent direction sense than females.

--JB

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e_utopia@hotmail.com
 
I dunno about that JB. In high school, we did an experiment. Needless to say, it wasnt scientific. But there was an overwhelming majority of men when it came to identifying ANY direction correctly. We just stopped them in the halls and asked them to point and identify any direction they wished. Guys were more accurate hands down. NW
 
Might work if you're a birdbrain
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. I have to work at it. Only Daniel Boone never got lost (but he was once confused for three days). There has been a lot of research into how critters such as birds and turtles navigate great distances. Magnetism has something to do with it, apparently.
 
One amazing thing I noted. When I attempt to walk straight without a compass in thick bush, I always seem to go really quickly to the right. If I am using a compass, and the bush is thick, it appears to me that I am quickly turning left. It is the strangest feeling. I remember from Forestry school, they harped and harped about believing the compass. I have absolutly no trouble navigating in new cities though.
My buddies all get a chuckle about my lack of natural navigation skills. Relying on the compass works for me!

Ken

 
I wonder if this relates at all to those experiments that have been done with walking in circles? You know, they get a huge flat open field, overcast day, etc., and have people walk blindfolded. They end up walking in spirals. Or maybe that's just because people have one leg just a fraction longer or something; I'm not sure what the conclusions were.


Good point about it being iron in the brain, not just the bloodstream. I guess that would make a difference. So much for my plan.
smile.gif
 
Sense of direction is practically a magical thing. At least to me, since my sense of direction is horrendous.

My wife, though, is completely amazing. We can go one time to somewhere we've never been before, through all kinds of twists and turns in a strange town, and years later she'll know how to get back to that exact same place. And she can make up new ways to get there on the fly -- Her: "well, it's that way, so we can make this turn here, and then..." Me: "uh, how do you know it's that way?"

On the other hand, she can't read a map. So our navigation skills complement each others'.

Joe
 
Joe,

Our wives must be related. We can be hiking off trail in the National Forest for hours, and she can show me a short cut to get back to camp, and she's never wrong. I, on the other hand, can get lost in a telephone booth.

However, when we are driving around in a new area, she refuses to ask for directions, which annoys me to no end. I hate not knowing where I am, so I am always running into a gas station, etc. So when people have jokes about men not wanting to ask for directions, I really can't relate. Seems the other way around to me!
 
I think people take slightly larger strides with one leg, so they end up walking in circles in large areas...like wandering in a desert.
 
Well, my wife is the classic woman with no sense of direction. She loves to travel and when she went off to college she began as a geography major. I soon figured out that she found it hard to locate the university by herself so I pointed her at linguistics instead. This seemed a much better match. She went ahead and took linguistics, Spanish, French, German, Swedish, Japanese, Mandarin, and Japanese. She may not have a great sense of direction, but when we travel she can always read the signs and ask for directions.


[This message has been edited by Jeff Clark (edited 03-16-2001).]
 
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by e_utopia:
Sorry, it doesn't work that way. The birds' iron is in their brains, not just their blood. And it's the iron in their brains that does it. </font>
Click to expand...

Kinda. It really isn't exactly iron, it's a substance called magnetite (iron oxide).
http://www.minerals.net/mineral/oxides/magnetit/magnetit.htm
And in birds, it's located between their brain and the skull (at least in pigeons). In pelagic whales, magnetite has been found in the cerebral cortex.

The distribution and location of magnetite SUGGESTS that it may play a role in the detection of magnetic fields, but no actual receptor cells that transduce the magnetic signals into neuronal signals have been identified. Some species of mud-dwelling bacteria contain particles of magnetite and they have been found to orient to Earth's magnetic field.

Is magnetite present in our brains? Possibly.
http://www.chem.ufl.edu/~jdobson/dobson.grassi.html

Also: the lateral line system of migratory eels contains extremely sensitive electroreceptors that are sensitive to the geoelectrical fields set up in the sea by ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream.

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Hoodoo

I get some pleasure from finding a relentlessly peaceful use for a combative looking knife.
JKM
 
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