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Might be more concerned, as to what they used as the jacking point🤦🏼♂️
When the garage uses the nearside etc terms I always reply with either driver or passenger side because those other terms mean nothing to me.
It took me ages to remember also, but it's relative to the kerb.
Also left would be the left side of the car from the viewpoint of driving it forwards, any other ‘but what if you are looking at it from the side’ nonsense is just you trying to be a smart arse,
But as someone else said, this is assuming relative to the driver and arse-backwards to a mechanic. If you were under a bonnet and had a bolt to your right would you call it "on the left"? What about if you were told to turn it to the right, would that be tightening or loosening? This is why n/s and o/s exist, the terminology doesn't change relative to the viewer so there's no confusion.
I also don’t get inside and outside lane, I believe that inside is meant to be near the curb, but to me that it wrong, the centre/inside of the road is where the two opposite direction lanes meet and the outside is where the road meets the curb, like the whole road is a thing like a tube.
What if there wasn't a carriageway running in the opposite direction?
TBH I'm kind of with you on this. Which is the inside lane on a roundabout? What happens when we get three lanes, four? 1st lane / 2nd lane / n'th lane is far less ambiguous.
Great thread this.
My wife apparently knows how to tighten or loosen bolts by saying lefty loosey, righty tighty. But this means nothing to me. Left what?
Perhaps all this discussion over sides is why the more pragmatic maritime (and indeed aviation) has always referred to 'Port' and 'Starboard'...
..... and this is why surgeons draw a big arrow on whatever part of you they are operating on.
Maybe you should have written 'this one' on the sidewall of the tyre you wanted changing.
My wife apparently knows how to tighten or loosen bolts by saying lefty loosey, righty tighty.
I thought Leftie Lucy was a protagonist on the Starmer thread?
But this means nothing to me. Left what?
Your thumb (as perceived using your own eyes and not having an outer body experience) is moving to the left as you untighten and a normal non-contortionist range of movement to undo said bolt.
My sister is a very intelligent science type with a PhD and doing all sorts of very clever things with the human genome and DNA that I can't pronounce let alone understand. But she has an 'L' and a 'R' tattooed on her wrists which she uses many times a day. Without them she'd be scuppered. It's a medical thing apparently. After this thread I can't wait to quiz her on N/S and O/S! Why have I not used this as an opportunity to bully my clever younger sister before!!!
Does a track car have an off side and near side if it's never driven on a road with a pavement?
Your thumb (as perceived using your own eyes and not having an outer body experience) is moving to the left as you untighten and a normal non-contortionist range of movement to undo said bolt.
You have thumbs at the top of your hand? Are you from St Helens?
Does a track car have an off side and near side if it’s never driven on a road with a pavement?
F1. No passenger side, no drivers side. I don't think all pit lanes are the same direction, so I'm assuming they revert to left and right.
These are important questions damnit! 😁
But she has an ‘L’ and a ‘R’ tattooed on her wrists which she uses many times a day
Wouldn't a watch be more straightforward?
Wouldn’t a watch be more straightforward?
Nope - asked her that. Apparently 'I wear my watch on my left hand therefore as there is no watch this must be the right hand side' doesn't stick. Weird huh?
But as someone else said, this is assuming relative to the driver and arse-backwards to a mechanic.
It's relative to the bloody car, not the person observing the car!
If you were walking along the road with your missus together and asked her to lift up her left hand... then you turn and face her and have a discussion... you ask her to lift up her left hand..
Are you seriously going to tell her " no, that's not your left hand anymore because I'm facing you?" 🤣
If you were under a bonnet and had a bolt to your right would you call it “on the left”?
But the original discussion was nothing to do with "on the left/ right" it was "right or left tyre"
What about if you were told to turn it to the right, would that be tightening or loosening?
It wouldn't be anything. I'd ask them to use sensible terminology like clockwise/anticlockwise not some stupid hack like left/ right. It's a rotation FFS, not a linear movement.
Teaching 13yos about the heart commonly pointed out that the right ventricle is on the left hand side of the diagram. Apparently my answer of "you have to pretend it's your heart" is, rightly, daft.
Drivers side/passenger side, always.
Not the correct techno speak but removes all avoidance of doubt....
..unless it's an import 😉
If you were walking along the road with your missus together and asked her to lift up her left hand… then you turn and face her and have a discussion… you ask her to lift up her left hand..
Are you seriously going to tell her ” no, that’s not your left hand anymore because I’m facing you?” 🤣
If she had a bit of food or something on her left cheek, and you wanted to discreetly mime to tell her without causing embarrassment, would you wipe your own left cheek or your right?
My wife apparently knows how to tighten or loosen bolts by saying lefty loosey, righty tighty. But this means nothing to me. Left what?
Left is anti clockwise if looking from the front of the screw, shirley?
But don't ask her to change your crank or pedals 😀
When I say front of the screw, I mean the bit you put the screwdriver into, not the pointy bit 😀
If you were walking along the road with your missus together and asked her to lift up her left hand… then you turn and face her and have a discussion… you ask her to lift up her left hand
It's HER left hand but it is on YOUR right. All I'm saying is that it's likely to lead to confusion if you talk about things on the left when it's on your own right. And given that we have alternative words that don't have any other meaning and simply cannot be confused, it makes more sense (IMO) to use those. As we have been doing at sea for centuries.
If she had a bit of food or something on her left cheek, and you wanted to discreetly mime to tell her without causing embarrassment, would you wipe your own left cheek or your right?
I dunno, do they have line of sight, or is one looking at the other through a mirror?
Makes you think, heheh
Left is anti clockwise if looking from the front of the screw, shirley?
How'd you work that out? The top of the screw would have to move left but the bottom would move right. So it's both left and right to undo it. Of course, if we are sticking to the direction of travel, then left and right are also reversed if you are screwing or unscrewing the screw.
If the head of the screw is the bit that takes the screwdriver, then doesn't that mean they go in backwards and come out forwards? 😆
How’d you work that out? The top of the screw would have to move left but the bottom would move right. So it’s both left and right to undo it. Of course, if we are sticking to the direction of travel, then left and right are also reversed if you are screwing or unscrewing the screw.
Nah - as I said before it's a human anthropometrics and mechanics thing....which confuses nerds I appreciate. Think of "leftie loosy, righty tighty" as a translational tool between the fluffs and geeks. Us geeks are focussing on the bolt and it's mechanically correct translation in a (helical) anticlockwise rotating to undo. Fluffs are just looking at what their hand does when they do this geeky thing right (that they don't do very often so need a rhyme to remember as they don't have the muscle memory). From a fluffs perspective their fingers are moving to the left as they look down on the top of their hand doing to the do (what with their eyes and hand being orientated as that are on their bodies - you'd not want it the other way around with eyeballs on your kneecaps or you'd spend your days looking up your own butt).
Regardless - it's a simple term that allows fluffs to do the occasional geeky thing without ****ing it up. Some people (geeks) struggle to comprehend the need but without it the fluffs would be lost. Mostly people live in one of the two camps. I'm a D&T teacher so firmly in the geek camp; but I teach a lot of fluffs. I have to speak both languages - I'm a soothsayer if you will.
Interesting. I do have to remind myself which way things turn quite regularly when working on cars etc but this is because I over think and question everything. So I hold up my hand and tell it to do an 'undo' movement and observe what it does. My muscle memory knows, when my brain cannot decide which way to apply maximum force to a breaker bar for example or anything that's not a screwdriver.
I also am over thinking the lefty loosey thing, I'm questioning what is moving left here.
So I hold up my hand and tell it to do an ‘undo’ movement and observe what it does.
This. Especially if reaching backwards upside down behind you, and interfacing with the "wrong" end of the thing.
Left hand threads, triplily so.
My first job was teaching in a prison. At the end of the lesson there'd be a bit of a wait and a chat while the various classes were counted out and back to the wing. One of the first chats, particularly as I was a newbie, was a folks recounting tales of pranks they'd either played on apprentices or had fallen victim to. Taking a fire extinguisher and a note into a bank, being sent to the Chinese Takeaway to buy chicken lips and so on
One guy had been an apprentice in a tyre garage - and on his first day had been sent by the manager to get 'a tyre for the 5th wheel'. Dutifully when round all the various factors and suppliers on the list he'd been given- all of whom were in in the joke and send him on to the next supplier with the request. He was getting more and more anxious and more and more frustrated about the whole thing and finally, seeing he was upset one of the suppliers let on about the joke .... "so I went back and I shot him". And thats why he was there.
I also am over thinking the lefty loosey thing, I’m questioning what is moving left here.
Never seen a volume knob?
Would "turn left" be confusing here?
Your left or my left or the cars left?
What a bizarre question?
Left of car when stood in front looking at it or left when sat in the drivers side. Any clearer?
*Sigh* Offside - the side of the car furthest from the kerb when being driven on the road, or driver’s side, if you must.
Nearside - side of the car closest to the kerb when being driven.
This is not a difficult concept to grasp, anyone who’s actually managed to pass a driving test and pass it successfully should be able to understand it, the car’s orientation doesn’t change it, it’s a fixed concept.
Really…
Think of “leftie loosy, righty tighty”
Until you come across something that unscrews the opposite way; I’m sure, as someone who I assume owns and rides a bike, you’ll have come across such an item.
*Sigh* Offside – the side of the car furthest from the kerb when being driven on the road, or driver’s side, if you must.
Nearside – side of the car closest to the kerb when being driven.
Depends how erratically you're driving
Would “turn left” be confusing here?
No, because there is a dot on the knob that is moving to the left. Even if there weren't, the presence of the gradations on the top gives you a visual direction.
so I went back and I shot him
I'm not doubting this claim, but tbh if I were in prison for I dunno, tax evasion* or something, and I was in a class being taught by someone from outside, I'd say stuff like that just to shit them up.
* note to HMRC spies, I don't really evade tax...
No, because there is a dot on the knob that is moving to the left.
Think of your thumb on your hand that is holding the bolt as the dot on the knob - boom, there you go - one visual reference moving to the left.
Would “turn left” be confusing here?
No, because there is a dot on the knob that is moving to the left. Even if there weren’t, the presence of the gradations on the top gives you a visual direction.
But according to this thread, yes, it would be confusing if you were trying to turn the volume up from behind the volume knob.
At least there you have a dot that does move left or right.
If you are using a spanner and you had your tool hanging down below the axis of rotation, which way does the tip of the tool move?
But according to this thread, yes, it would be confusing if you were trying to turn the volume up from behind the volume knob.
You can't turn the volume knob from behind, but you can and indeed often have to undo bolts from behind.
Think of your thumb on your hand that is holding the bolt as the dot on the knob – boom, there you go – one visual reference moving to the left.
What sort of weird double jointed hands do you have where your thumb ends up at the top of whatever bolt you're turning? 😶
My fingers would be at the top and thumb at the bottom unless I did some heinous yoga move grip....
You can’t turn the volume knob from behind, but you can and indeed often have to undo bolts from behind.
Why not? I often lean over my kitchen work surface to turn the stereo volume up from the wrong side, instead of walking around the island to face it head on.
What sort of weird double jointed hands do you have where your thumb ends up at the top of whatever bolt you’re turning? 😶
My fingers would be at the top and thumb at the bottom unless I did some heinous yoga move grip….
ahh - I'm a leftie - this is how we roll when we undo things. You weirdo righties will just have to figure it out for yourselves.