The south-pointing chariot, a mechanical-geared, wheeled vehicle used to discern the southern cardinal direction (without magnetics), was given a brief description by Ma's contemporary Fu Xuan. The contempor… See more

The English engineer George Lanchester proposed that some south-pointing chariots employed differential gears. A differential is an assembly of gears, nowadays used in almost all automobiles except some electric and hybrid … See more

Although the hypothesis that the south-pointing chariot used differential gears has gained wide acceptance, it should be recognized that functional south-pointing chariots without differential gears are possible. T… See more

Some non-mechanical method of finding the south must have been used when a mechanical south-pointing chariot was initialized, aiming its pointer to the south at the start of a journey. Any of the methods mentioned … See more

While none of the historic south-pointing chariots remain, full sized replicas can be found.
The History Museum in Beijing, China, holds a replica based on the mechanism of Yen Su (1027). … See more