Does each language have "lefty loosey righty tighty"?

vatlark@lemmy.world to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 471 points –

The world has a lot of different standards for a lot of things, but I have never heard of a place with the default screw thread direction being opposite.

So does each language have a fun mnemonic?

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It's getting so convoluted at this point just knowing clockwise/anticlockwise is infinitely easier.

If a steering wheel has you this perplexed then I beg you to never ever drive a vehicle.

If you're gripping the bottom of the wheel you move your hands left to make the car turn right. Which is kind of the whole problem here. Rotation around a centre doesn't happen right or left. That's the whole reason why the words "clockwise" and "anticlockwise" exist. Translation = right, left, up, down, forward, back. Rotation = clockwise, anticlockwise.

It doesn't matter where you hold the wheel. When you're turning right, you're always doing the right movement for tightening a screw, no matter the hand position. That's the point.

A clockwise rotation turns a car to the right (in forward gear) and tightens a nut (right hand threaded). But this is not a rotation to the right. It's a clockwise rotation. You can't rotate "to the right". That's the point.

I agree. But you can say turn to the right and people connect the clockwise movement of the wheel with the direction of the car, which makes it possible for people to understand each other's instructions intuitively even if they use right-left terminilogy instead of the precise clockwise-counterclockwise one.

If I ask you to turn the car left and you give me this speech I would eject from the car.

Yes, and I would be devastated to see you go.

At least until the next bend in the road where the sign indicating a left turn ahead is more than you can handle.