this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024
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As a kid it took me a long time to understand what turning right even meant, because when the top goes right, the bottom goes left and the sides go up and down. It doesn't make sense.
Even in my sixth decade, I beat people about the head with this, becoming the pedant from hell until they finally revert to clockwise and counterclockwise. And if they become specific enough to be “right over the top”, I go, “well, why not just say clockwise and avoid all that ambiguity?”
Being on the spectrum, it took me into my very early teens to even figure out right from left. I was two grades ahead of my peers in math, and could read a map and navigate better than most adults, but I needed a high degree of specificity when it came to physical directions. Any assumptions that were inconsequential to others became massive roadblocks to me due to the innate ambiguity of assumptions.
I think the issue is that the words "clockwise" and especially "counterclockwise" are way too long and therefore people prefer saying "left" or "right".
Not to mention a rapidly growing segment of the population is unable to read analog 12 hour clocks, so the analogy is not that helpful.
"But it's going anticlockwise if you look at it from behind..."
If you mount a clock on the ceiling, which way do the hands go? What about their shadow on the floor?
Those are some really theoretical ways to observe a clock face.
How about we just start saying, "torque in, torque out"? When the torque vector points in, the screw goes in (tightening). When it points out, the screw comes out (loosening). As long as you are standing on the side of the screw you can actually work with while working with it (and why wouldn't you be?) this is never ambiguous.
Of course, now we're kicking the can down the road and relying on people wrapping their heads around the right hand rule... Hmm...
Doesn't have to be a clock. Which way does a ceiling fan spin?
I have lived in a home with a ceiling fan for nearly 30 years and I cannot confidently answer this question off the top of my head.
Maybe that's just tremendous skill issue on my part, but recognizing that all ceiling fans are standardized to spin only one way and knowing which way that is seems like a weird thing to ask of someone who also needs a mnemonic for which way to tighten screws.
That's not what I meant. If you have a ceiling fan in front of you, how would you describe its rotation? Would it rotate the same way as its shadow? Or opposite? Why?
Okay, so, yeah. "Righty tighty" never worked for me but you know what did? Turning Clockwise would eventually make the screwhead block up against the wood. "Clockwise, blockwise".
That’s a new one for me. Thanks.
I've been wrenching on cars nearly 30 years. I've had mechanical maintenance as part of my actual job for a decade now. Two years ago it all finally clicked for me. Clockwise tight, counterclockwise loose.
In Dutch we only talk about turning screws clockwise and counterclockwise