knowing your left from your right
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I'm not sure how I started off on this whole thing, whether it was something I read which buried itself in my subconscious, or if I just got tired of watching paint dry, but the thought occurred to me somehow. How would you explain to someone on another planet what direction left or right is ? Up and down would be pretty simple I guess as you would have the gravity of their planet as a frame of referencce.
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I'm not sure how I started off on this whole thing, whether it was something I read which buried itself in my subconscious, or if I just got tired of watching paint dry, but the thought occurred to me somehow. How would you explain to someone on another planet what direction left or right is ? Up and down would be pretty simple I guess as you would have the gravity of their planet as a frame of referencce.
If you know their co-ordinates, you can choose two stars that are visible to them and explain which one is on their left and which one is on their right. Nish
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If you know their co-ordinates, you can choose two stars that are visible to them and explain which one is on their left and which one is on their right. Nish
Nope. In this particular situation, you don't know exactly where they are.
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I'm not sure how I started off on this whole thing, whether it was something I read which buried itself in my subconscious, or if I just got tired of watching paint dry, but the thought occurred to me somehow. How would you explain to someone on another planet what direction left or right is ? Up and down would be pretty simple I guess as you would have the gravity of their planet as a frame of referencce.
Assuming they have hands with an opposable digit, tell them to look at their hands palm down and the one that spells an 'L' with the thumb straight out is their left hand. If their hands are backwards, just flip them over. ;P I still need to do this to check my left from my right - I have never been able to do it naturally, though after a second or so of thinking I can normally get it right. If I'm wearing a watch it is easier because I always wear mine on my right wrist, but I still need to glance at it or touch it to make sure.
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flikrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
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Assuming they have hands with an opposable digit, tell them to look at their hands palm down and the one that spells an 'L' with the thumb straight out is their left hand. If their hands are backwards, just flip them over. ;P I still need to do this to check my left from my right - I have never been able to do it naturally, though after a second or so of thinking I can normally get it right. If I'm wearing a watch it is easier because I always wear mine on my right wrist, but I still need to glance at it or touch it to make sure.
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flikrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
David Wulff wrote: I still need to do this to check my left from my right Knowing my right hand is easy. It's the one I use to dig in my nose, and other things..........;)
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I'm not sure how I started off on this whole thing, whether it was something I read which buried itself in my subconscious, or if I just got tired of watching paint dry, but the thought occurred to me somehow. How would you explain to someone on another planet what direction left or right is ? Up and down would be pretty simple I guess as you would have the gravity of their planet as a frame of referencce.
Send him a spiral (or a dna sample would be even better) and explain that right is the direction that the spiral goes "up" relative to its central axis. '--8<------------------------ Ex Datis: Duncan Jones Merrion Computing Ltd
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Send him a spiral (or a dna sample would be even better) and explain that right is the direction that the spiral goes "up" relative to its central axis. '--8<------------------------ Ex Datis: Duncan Jones Merrion Computing Ltd
If you're going to send him something, you might as well send him a piece of paper with up/down/left/right written on it. :rolleyes:
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flikrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
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Assuming they have hands with an opposable digit, tell them to look at their hands palm down and the one that spells an 'L' with the thumb straight out is their left hand. If their hands are backwards, just flip them over. ;P I still need to do this to check my left from my right - I have never been able to do it naturally, though after a second or so of thinking I can normally get it right. If I'm wearing a watch it is easier because I always wear mine on my right wrist, but I still need to glance at it or touch it to make sure.
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flikrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
David Wulff wrote: I still need to do this to check my left from my right - I have never been able to do it naturally, though after a second or so of thinking I can normally get it right. I know my left from my right, but I always confused the Malayalam words for left (idathu) and right (valathu) when I was younger :-) I then memorized this word - iva - the i came first and stood for idathu - and the va came next and stood for valathu. Nish
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If you're going to send him something, you might as well send him a piece of paper with up/down/left/right written on it. :rolleyes:
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flikrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
David Wulff wrote: If you're going to send him something, you might as well send him a piece of paper with up/down/left/right written on it. And make sure you don't use blotting paper, else he'd get the symbols and the directions lateraly mixed up :rolleyes:
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Nope. In this particular situation, you don't know exactly where they are.
Garth Watkins wrote: Nope. In this particular situation, you don't know exactly where they are. Crap! Maybe you could get him to take an electromagnet and make him do some flux stuff or whatever they call it. I forgot my Physics, but I think there's some way to distingusih right and left. Wasn't there someone's left-hand-rule for finding the direction of current? Nish
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I'm not sure how I started off on this whole thing, whether it was something I read which buried itself in my subconscious, or if I just got tired of watching paint dry, but the thought occurred to me somehow. How would you explain to someone on another planet what direction left or right is ? Up and down would be pretty simple I guess as you would have the gravity of their planet as a frame of referencce.
I guess when you`re starting to discuss directions with aliens better than explaining left and right, you should explain North, South, East and West. They could measure the magnetic field of their planet -> so they would know north from south. Slightly more difficult would be east - west, (similar to left right). I guess for that they could walk to the northern hemisphere of their planet(since they now know north from south it should be easy), once there they should flush a toilet, the water will rotate in a Clockwise direction (that way you immediatly explained clockwise too), and tell them that when looking at the toilet, the water closest to the north will flow in a eastern direction, the water closest to the south flows in a western direction. Explaining left from right could also be done then by saying if you face north, the hand or paw or eye or tail or tentacle that is furthest to the west is their left hand/paw/tentacle/... and the one furthest to the east is their right one. Hope this helps you when you will need to explain the next alien that asks you the directions to the nearest gass-station. ;)
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I'm not sure how I started off on this whole thing, whether it was something I read which buried itself in my subconscious, or if I just got tired of watching paint dry, but the thought occurred to me somehow. How would you explain to someone on another planet what direction left or right is ? Up and down would be pretty simple I guess as you would have the gravity of their planet as a frame of referencce.
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Assuming they have hands with an opposable digit, tell them to look at their hands palm down and the one that spells an 'L' with the thumb straight out is their left hand. If their hands are backwards, just flip them over. ;P I still need to do this to check my left from my right - I have never been able to do it naturally, though after a second or so of thinking I can normally get it right. If I'm wearing a watch it is easier because I always wear mine on my right wrist, but I still need to glance at it or touch it to make sure.
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flikrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
David Wulff wrote: I still need to do this to check my left from my right - I have never been able to do it naturally, though after a second or so of thinking I can normally get it right. If I'm wearing a watch it is easier because I always wear mine on my right wrist, but I still need to glance at it or touch it to make sure. I always thought I was alone! I can tell you north, south, east, west, but I have to look at my hands to give directions in "right or left" turns. People love to make fun of me at work when I give directions, they always ask "is that a right turn or a left turn" and I have to check.... _________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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David Wulff wrote: I still need to do this to check my left from my right - I have never been able to do it naturally, though after a second or so of thinking I can normally get it right. I know my left from my right, but I always confused the Malayalam words for left (idathu) and right (valathu) when I was younger :-) I then memorized this word - iva - the i came first and stood for idathu - and the va came next and stood for valathu. Nish
Nishant S wrote: I know my left from my right And be very thankful for it, it is a useful skill! I am sure my inability to recall them without thinking hard is entirely through habit rather than any other problem, but no matter what I've tried I can't get past that learned reaction to check the shape of my hand when I need to tell left from right. For some odd reason, if I just use left or right in conversation (e.g. "at this junction we'll turn left"), almost without exception I will have them backwards. :(
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flikrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
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I guess when you`re starting to discuss directions with aliens better than explaining left and right, you should explain North, South, East and West. They could measure the magnetic field of their planet -> so they would know north from south. Slightly more difficult would be east - west, (similar to left right). I guess for that they could walk to the northern hemisphere of their planet(since they now know north from south it should be easy), once there they should flush a toilet, the water will rotate in a Clockwise direction (that way you immediatly explained clockwise too), and tell them that when looking at the toilet, the water closest to the north will flow in a eastern direction, the water closest to the south flows in a western direction. Explaining left from right could also be done then by saying if you face north, the hand or paw or eye or tail or tentacle that is furthest to the west is their left hand/paw/tentacle/... and the one furthest to the east is their right one. Hope this helps you when you will need to explain the next alien that asks you the directions to the nearest gass-station. ;)
http://www.snopes.com/science/coriolis.htm[^]
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flikrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
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David Wulff wrote: I still need to do this to check my left from my right - I have never been able to do it naturally, though after a second or so of thinking I can normally get it right. If I'm wearing a watch it is easier because I always wear mine on my right wrist, but I still need to glance at it or touch it to make sure. I always thought I was alone! I can tell you north, south, east, west, but I have to look at my hands to give directions in "right or left" turns. People love to make fun of me at work when I give directions, they always ask "is that a right turn or a left turn" and I have to check.... _________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
Jeffry J. Brickley wrote: I always thought I was alone! It is a pretty common problem, though many people you see doing it will deny it till their death. I am convinced it is because people like us were taught from an early age to use the hand shapes to tell left from right, and it has just stuck. When someone asks us for a direction our brains automatically make us look at our hands to recall it (my left hand will already be in position and held straight before my eyes hit it so it's not a case of looking to find out because my bain already knows which side it is). I am the same with my nine times multipication table - if I think about it I can receit it ok but it is much quicker for me to just look at my hands and use that finger folding trick.
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flikrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
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http://www.snopes.com/science/coriolis.htm[^]
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flikrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
I`ve actually seen a documentary once of a guy that was proving that he was standing on the equator. He took a basin of water filled it went 50meters to one direction - opened the drain the water swirled clockwise, went 100 meters to the other did the same thing(with same basin->water swirled counterclockwise... Also all the sinks at my place + my parents place swirl clockwise, seems a little too much for it to be a coincedence... Offcourse I don^t know people in the Southern hemisphere to confirm this.... I think Bart Simpson confirmed that ibn one of the episodes. Offcourse there the embassy of America had installed a system to make water swirl clockwise in Australia so fellow Americans would feel at home:) Cheers, Davy
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Jeffry J. Brickley wrote: I always thought I was alone! It is a pretty common problem, though many people you see doing it will deny it till their death. I am convinced it is because people like us were taught from an early age to use the hand shapes to tell left from right, and it has just stuck. When someone asks us for a direction our brains automatically make us look at our hands to recall it (my left hand will already be in position and held straight before my eyes hit it so it's not a case of looking to find out because my bain already knows which side it is). I am the same with my nine times multipication table - if I think about it I can receit it ok but it is much quicker for me to just look at my hands and use that finger folding trick.
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flikrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
David Wulff wrote: I am convinced it is because people like us were taught from an early age to use the hand shapes to tell left from right My first grade teacher wrote R and L on the back of my hands in permanent marker and hit the hand with a ruler when I got it wrong.... I carried my hands in my pockets to hide them outside of class, I never learned the "L" trick until I was much older. I didn't get Right and Left down until middle 2nd grade. I alternated letter facing constantly and randomly, they all looked the same to me. Not like dislexia, the opposite, I read it backwards or forwards equally well. Me and English never got along well after that. _________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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I`ve actually seen a documentary once of a guy that was proving that he was standing on the equator. He took a basin of water filled it went 50meters to one direction - opened the drain the water swirled clockwise, went 100 meters to the other did the same thing(with same basin->water swirled counterclockwise... Also all the sinks at my place + my parents place swirl clockwise, seems a little too much for it to be a coincedence... Offcourse I don^t know people in the Southern hemisphere to confirm this.... I think Bart Simpson confirmed that ibn one of the episodes. Offcourse there the embassy of America had installed a system to make water swirl clockwise in Australia so fellow Americans would feel at home:) Cheers, Davy
It's not real, just a widely believed myth, and it is pretty easy to proove it wrong if you have a basin with two taps and some patience. The style of toilets that I've used all my life are hard to watch draining because they jet water straight down from under the rim as soon as you flush. With sinks though, assuming you don't have a mixer tap, if you fill from one side it will drain one way and if you fill from the other it will drain the opposite way. Without exception. Once time when I really had too much interest in finding out about this I filled my bath with water and left it to settle overnight. In the morning it still drained the same way as I filled it (which was wrong according to the Bart Simpson effect). You have to be very careful removing the plug when the water has been standing for a while because that will impart a spin (typically right handed people will make it spin one way, and left handed people the other). Unless your basin is particularly flawed or at an angle so the plug hole imparts a spin, you can reproduce these results with almost certainty.
Ðavid Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Audioscrobbler :: flikrDie Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen
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I'm not sure how I started off on this whole thing, whether it was something I read which buried itself in my subconscious, or if I just got tired of watching paint dry, but the thought occurred to me somehow. How would you explain to someone on another planet what direction left or right is ? Up and down would be pretty simple I guess as you would have the gravity of their planet as a frame of referencce.
After having realized that no one could come up with a good solution, I think I'll go back to watching some more paint dry :)