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MessiahAndrw wrote:How do we know left is not right, and right is not left, and our brain horizontally flips the image?

Because what we see is consistent with what we hear and feel, and we don't bump into each other by accident even when from different cultures.

Shouldn't this really be in General Ramblings?
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I like the description of left:
[quote]
Hands flat on the table, the one on which your index finger and your thumb make an 'L' is the left
[quote]

That's how I learnt

pcmattman wrote:Shouldn't this really be in General Ramblings?
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I don't think you can be OT in the test forum, can you

Pick up two roses. Drop one. The one you still hold is left. Right is the opposite of left, so you can figure out the definition of right yourself.

More appropriate, your empty hand is your predominant hand
a good deal of people are left-handed for which this doesn't hold.

i have a definition that is guaratied to work.

Stab the person in his left hand and tell him that where it hurts is left and where t doesnt hurt is right

Anyway you can explain that left is opposite to right (and even then youd still have to define opposite or whatever word you use), but you cant define which one is which without visualisation...

What if they suffer from leprosy?

Left can be one of these: communist, socialist and anarchist.
Examples: Lenin, Che, Kropotkin.

Righties are fascists and people who feed fascists (aka social democrats).
Examples: Bush, Hitler, Tony Blair, Mussolini, General Franco.

I'm not 6 years old and yes, it's all that simple. Have a nice day now.

iskra wrote: Left can be one of these: communist, socialist and anarchist.
Examples: Lenin, Che, Kropotkin.

Righties are fascists and people who feed fascists (aka social democrats).
Examples: Bush, Hitler, Tony Blair, Mussolini, General Franco.

I'm not 6 years old and yes, it's all that simple. Have a nice day now.

Tony blair is a socialist (Which would put him on the left!)
I'd consider fascism a syncretic movement (You can now eliminate Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco from this list.
...and that leaves us with just Bush on the right (You can add all conservatives and libertarians there).

But I do agree with your definition of the left.

I currently am bored, and when I am bored, I rant about politics. My apologies.

Left means what remains after an action.

Right means correct.

Of, belonging to, located on, or being the side of the body to the north when the subject is facing east.

Well with both the directions and the morality or political concept right/left is simply a matter of a persons perspective. You have to find something that a person and you share in common in order to convey the concept of right and left. I had a girlfriend that screwed up right and left all the time. If you asked her which was her right or left hand should would get that correct but while driving if you told her to turn right or left she would get it wrong half the time. Eventually I worked out that it was better to avoid right/left when giving her driving directions. She had one body part that was very slightly larger than another. If I told her to turn to the big **** side she would always get it correct. Worked great until we had other people in the car with us.

May be we should always carry a freely suspended magnet

Left = Up x Forward
Right = Forward x Up

Left and right, or clockwise and counterclockwise aren't just some arbitral distinctions. Left and right do not exactly have equal rights; it's not that physics, nature, the world treats the left and the right side identically.

Left is where you see the centre of a circle when you follow the circle counterclockwise. Right is where you see the centre of the circle when you follow it clockwise.

And now- tadam! The image of the vector [x,y] in the rotation of 90 degrees counterclockwise is
[ 0 1 ] [ x ]
[ -1 0 ] [ y ] (multiplication)

where the image in the rotation of 90 degrees clockwise is
[ 0 -1 ] [ x ]
[ 1 0 ] [ y ]

Well if even mathematics distinct left and right, then they're obviously not swappable.