• CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
    11·
    1 month ago

    Oh, I see.

    Car steering wheels work that way because of the convention. Change the side that the steering column’s gear meets the rack and pinion and the wheel would work the opposite way. From the mathematical perspective, there’s two ways to continuously map an arc of the steering wheel to an arc of the wheels, and since they aren’t in the same plane neither is “wrong”.

    • underisk@lemmy.ml
      2·
      1 month ago

      i know you can make the wheel work the opposite way, jesus christ. the circle motion the path of the car makes when you turn left is the same as when you turn the wheel to the conventional left. imagine, instead you steered “left” by a joystick. the car would still draw the same circular path the same fucking way, because turning left makes an anticlockwise circle, every time, in every situation.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
        1·
        1 month ago

        Ah, so the car isn’t even important. You’re one of the people imagining standing on the screw. As long as you have a convention about which way is “up” on it, that does work.

        • underisk@lemmy.ml
          1·
          1 month ago

          You have to have a convention about Up to usefully describe a rotational direction at all. I don’t see how that’s relevant. Left implies an Up.

          • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
            11·
            1 month ago

            Yes, it’s true, you do. Left doesn’t really imply an up so much as it comes as a package with one, though. I’m not OP, but historically I had the same issue. I just didn’t automatically jump to “in is down, and I’m on the rim”, and instead was thinking about my actual physical left and right at that moment.

            • underisk@lemmy.ml
              1·
              1 month ago

              You don’t really need to visualize yourself on the rim, either. Just turn left in any context and you will trace the path of an anticlockwise circle. It’s really more about establishing why there’s a link between left and anticlockwise. Picture and remember whatever works best for you, I’m just annoyed by the people stubbornly insisting the link between them doesn’t make perfect sense.