What is west?

West is the direction where the sun disappears each evening, opposite to where it wakes up in the morning.

Imagine you are standing on a giant spinning merry-go-round that faces East. As the ride turns counter-clockwise, the part of the world you stand on moves toward the rising sun. The side facing away from that light is West. If you stretch your arms out wide like an airplane, with your right hand pointing toward the sunrise (East), your left hand naturally points toward West, where the day ends.

Think of a clock on your wall. The numbers go clockwise, but if you trace your finger from the center out to the 9 o'clock position, you are moving West. On a map that hangs in classrooms, we usually put North at the top and South at the bottom. This leaves West on the left side and East on the right. So, if you look at a paper map of the United States, California is far to the West because it sits toward the left edge where the Pacific Ocean crashes onto the shore.

When you watch a sunset, the sky turns orange and purple as the sun sinks lower. That glowing ball is sliding down into the West. If your house faces East, your bedroom gets warm and bright in the morning. If your backyard faces West, it catches the long, golden rays of the late afternoon sun before darkness falls. It helps us know which way to walk home from school or how to set our watches when we travel across time zones.