Four dusty photos are kept in a battered old box of keepsakes. They're faded and hard to make out, but they all show the same place and seem to have been taken within a short space of time. In photo A, you can see a horse-drawn carriage traveling across the frame.
Can you tell in which direction the carriage was headed?
UK Version
Four aged photos are kept inside an old journal. They're faded and hard to make out, but they all show the same place and seem to have been taken within a short space of time. In photo A, you can see a horse-drawn carriage travelling across the frame.
Can you tell in which direction the carriage was headed?
First, take a close look at the carriage. The horse is facing left, so it must be traveling from right to left through the picture.
That's not enough information to work out the cardinal direction in which it's traveling, though. Isn't there anything else that could help you with that? Something people would have used in olden times to work out their directions?
UK Version
First, take a close look at the carriage. The horse is facing to the left, so it must be travelling from right to left through the picture.
That's not enough information to work out the cardinal direction in which it's travelling, though. Is there anything else that could help you with that? Something people would have used in olden times to work out their directions?
The sun is a useful guide when trying to determine compass points. It rises in the east and sets in the west without fail.
The sun is just above the horizon in these photos... But wait! Don't answer yet. Is it rising or setting? Compare the photos to see if you can work it out.
There is something else in the photos that will allow you to work out the passage of time between them. The number of leaves on the tree on the left should tell you something.
US Version
If you use this information combined with the position of the sun, you'll be able to work out which direction lies roughly straight ahead as you look at the photo.
UK Version
Use this information combined with the position of the sun and you'll be able to work out which direction lies roughly straight ahead as you look at the photo.
Compare photos A and D, where the sun is higher, with photo B, where it's lower. One of the leaves is missing from the tree in photo B. Therefore, B must have been taken later than A and D, and the sun must be getting lower in the sky because it's setting.
Picture yourself at the scene. If the sun is setting behind the hills in the west, which direction is the carriage traveling?
Solution
Incorrect
Too bad.
What are you basing your answer on?
Correct
Correct!
It was heading south.
A leaf has fallen from the left-hand tree between the times photo A and photo B were taken, so we can assume that the sun was setting. Since the sun sets in the West, the viewer must be east of the carriage, and the carriage is therefore traveling south.
