If the North and South poles were to flip what problems could this cause?

Airplane travel would probably be a bit iffy for a little while. Boat travel, too, unless there’s a captain or two that can still steer by the stars.

It has done so many times in the past not sure of the problems if any though!

@Cruiser – I’ve heard that it has done it before but how long ago? Were humans around?

You would have to read your maps upside down

Would that not be downside up?

Would it really mess up all my socks and underwear drawers?
I hope it happens in the warm Summer, so the water pipes don’t freeze! And the animals can find food.

Penguins would help the elves to pack presents.

Geomagnetic reversal is what you’re looking at.
Last time this happened was ~800,000 years ago. I don’t know much about Humans, but I think they’re only about 500,000 years old.
Even if humans (or their ancestors) were around, they certainly didn’t have scientific records of the effects.

From what I’ve heard from other sources..
Rapid change in magnetism can cause volcanic eruptions.
The magnetism would mess with our electronics, and thus power outages would arise.
Birds and fish both rely on magnetic fields for navigation. They’d end up getting lost, and perhaps not being able to find their nests nor feeding grounds.

Good article on wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_reversal

In addition to the geomagnetic reversal links I bet you’d find it interesting to read about magnetic declination, specifically this animation. It makes it a bit of fun to figure out heading in inertial navigation systems where you may be operating in GPS-denied environments (indoors, underwater, etc.) but need a heading and have to use a magnetometer. You generally need a lookup table for the local magnetic declination.

Toilets would flow backwards.
The Earth would rotate from East to West.
Photo negatives would be positive.
Seasons would go Spring – Winter – Autumn – Summer.
Everything old would be new again. w00t

@SeventhSense Only if we were unionized!

Not sure, but FOX would blame Obama.

@timtrueman Awesome animation link.

It would likely confuse the hell out of migrating birds.

Like others mentioned, it’s happened before. I’m pretty sure it just fucks up the weather patterns.

The “end of the world” that the Mayans predicted for 2012 or whatever that b.s. is that’s going around, if anything it might be referring to the reversing of the poles.

@janbb
Santa eliminated the elf union back in 1975 after he bumped Hoffa. Initially there were riots but they settled down.

The penguins won’t cave, we’re staunchly union to the core.

The…..... World…...upside down…....what are we coming to???

It happens all the time. Some scientists think we’re about due for the poles to switch again. It is an indelible part of the sedimentary record: the iron particles line up in the opposite direction each time there is a switch. It is one of the indirect ways of measuring geological time.

It seems to happen about every 35,000 years. And lemme see here, yep…it is due in 2012…

I would need a new globe and compass.

The Poles would invade Germany this time…

The Poles would invade Germany if they weren’t climbing the strippers.

The strippers would refinish the floor.

But wouldn’t the floor be the ceiling?

Then they could use ceiling wax on the new floor…

“One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor” as the Poet said.

You could be Dancing On The Ceiling!

None, if we rely on GPS.

Maybe that would be a good prank for next April Fool’s Day.