Was there an alternative adjective to “clockwise” other than “the rotation you take around left hand”?

Also, how did all watch companies around the world agree on what the direction of “clockwise” is?

  • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It works, but it’s ambiguous. You have to specify which part you’re referring to if you want to be sure you’re understood.

    • Uncle_Bagel
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      1 year ago

      Honestly the hardest concept for me to grasp in organic chemistry was left vs right chirality. I could understand why they were different, but fuck me if i could ever consistently identify them.

    • kuneho@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You have to specify which part you’re referring to

      What do you mean by that?

      • Nash42@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        Turning right, looking at the top of the clock, is different from turning right while looking at the bottom of the clock. And so on.

        • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          You’re not entirely wrong, but the convention is to refer to the top of the wheel. But you could be looking at the wheel from the other side, which would change its direction from your perspective.

          • kuneho@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            That’s true, but saying clockwise/anticlockwise also works with fixed perspective, unless the thing itself has a fixed orientation. but if that’s the case, left/right works the same.

            • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              No, it’s an extra level of confusion. Clockwise/counterclockwise only has one axis of confusion (looking from front or behind) with one option being the obvious default. Left/right have this axis AND the axis of top/bottom for confusion. It’s literally one bit more ambiguous.

      • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        No matter which direction a ball rolls, part of it moves to the right, and part to the left (either top right and bottom left, or vice versa). If you don’t specify which part of the ball you’re looking at, it could be either top or bottom, so the statement is ambiguous.

          • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            No, they are well-defined. There is no missing information in “clockwise”. There is missing information in “right”.

            There is no “top clockwise” or “bottom clockwise”.