Comment on How did people refer to clockwise movement before the invention of the clock?
Nash42@programming.dev 10 months agoTurning 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 10 months 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 10 months ago
That’s true, but saying clockwise/anticlockwise also works with fixed perspective, unless the thing itself has a fixed orientation. butnifbthelat’s the case, left/right works the same.
FooBarrington@lemmy.world 10 months 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.