EASY WAY TO REMEMBER HOW TO USE YOUR SCREWDRIVER
[a screwdriver is unscrewing a screw by turning counter-clockwise]
The LEFT liberates the screw from its oppression
[a screwdriver is screwing a screw by turning clockwise]
The RIGHT tightens the screw’s place in the social order imposed to it
Left and right to describe rotation is like the least helpful mnemonic ever.
And the picture above is a clear example why. The one saying left has an arrow pointing to the right and vice versa.
Reposting this as a direct response to you in case it’s helpful:
Try using your right hand directly to figure out which way to turn a screw. Make a loose thumbs up. Point your thumb in the direction you want the screw to go. The way your fingers are curling is the way you turn your screwdriver. If it helps, try to imagine there are arrows pointing out of your fingertips. Works just like the right hand rule in physics.
EDIT: here’s a picture of what I mean:
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I absolutely love this method. Whenever you’re screwing anything (unless it’s reverse threaded ofc), just point your thumb in the direction you want it to go and twist it in the direction or your fingers. Really helps when you’re all turned around like lying on your back under the kitchen sink and need to tighten a nut.
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It’s such a godsend. I wish people would teach both methods. It’s great that the “righty-tighty” thing works for so many people because it’s probably much faster than using your hand, but I spent so many years thinking I was shit at mechanical stuff because I couldn’t figure which way to turn a screw. I probably wouldn’t have a fucking obnoxious complex about it nowadays if I had learned this when I was five.
How about S-rotation and Z-rotation (imagine ends of letters being arrows)? Been thinking about this recently.
When you are asked to turn left or right, you instinctively know where to turn your body. Now, imagine you are looking at it from above, seeing yourself from the top. When you turn left or right, your head and the rest of your body turn in a specific direction, which should be easy to visualize. That’s the same movement in which you’d turn a valve / turn a steering wheel / rotate a screwdriver when asked to turn it left or right.
Not everyone has this instinct. There are many people who are unable to differentiate left from right. For those people, this doesn’t really work. I’m in my thirties and I still give shitass directions because I suck at telling left from right. I can do cardinal directions pretty well as long as I have a reference like some mountains, but like, I still have to think about left versus right.
I posted this elsewhere in this thread, but the only thing that’s ever worked for me was the right hand rule, where you use your right hand to physically demonstrate to yourself which way a screw needs to go.
Also, TIL that there’s a specific term for this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-right_confusion
For a screwdriver. Not really. If your body is in a different frame of reference then I really doubt the direction is the worst of your problems.
It’s basically the same as the right hand rule in physics. The reference frame is not difficult to derive. The ease of the rhyme or “hand” to use is the point.
Or just use your right hand directly, just like some forms of the right hand rule. Make a loose thumbs up. Point your thumb in the direction you want the screw to go. The way your fingers are curling is the way you turn your screwdriver. If it helps, try to imagine there are arrows pointing out of your fingertips.
A few years ago, I learned that there are people who can distinguish left and right as easily as they can distinguish up and down. Righty-tighty lefty-loosey as a mnemonic device works for those people. I have never had, nor will I likely ever have, an intuitive understanding of which way to turn a screw. If one part of the screw is moving left, another part is moving right. My brain simply cannot keep it consistently straight. I have to use my right hand in the manner I described every so often. It’s not a hindrance to me (I build stuff all the time and have a little hobby machine shop), and I sure as shit wish I had been taught this method as a child.
This is an interesting comment. I don’t have an issue with left and right. They as easy are up and down to me. But I have this problem in my brain inverting something. It’s hard to describe exactly. But say I need to fold something or do some set of steps in a 3D space in reverse from what I usually do. I “think” I can do it. I understand all of the operations. But when I actually perform the movements it feels like something doesn’t connect.
Again, it’s hard to describe what exactly breaks in my brain connected with my actions. But it’s a consistently inaccurate operation no matter how many times I try.
You’re describing your issue better. But I definitely understand it in a way.
Edit: I’m gonna leave my dyslexia typo in here. Since its probably related to dyslexia in some way. Actually, my typo probably explains it better as an example than I ever could.
CW and CCW (or anti-clockwise) don’t alliterate with loose or rhyme with tight though.
Plus there was a whole generation that never bothered to learn to read clocks…
I always say clock in, counter out.