Beware: This may damage your health!
The Mathematical equations that physics gives us tell us that Charge (C), Time (T) and Parity (P) ("left-rightness") are equally represented.
That is, you can each reverse all three quite easily and the equations will still look, and behave, the same as before.
The answer to the question "What is the difference between "right" and "left"?" is therefore this : there IS no difference.
Indeed, if an alien tells us he is "blurk-handed" does he mean our left or our right? There is no way of knowing. To most people, this makes sense, even though "left' and "right" "seem" different, there is no descriptive way to distinguish one from the other.
However, I DID say "to most people". Ask anyone who knows any quantum mechanics, and she will say immediately "Yes, there IS a difference". This is because the difference is only visible at quantum level, and it is called CPT violation, discovered by Madam Wu in the 1950's (see History of Science: Parity Violation) . Basically, it is the way an isotope of Cobalt behaves.
It always emits electrons in the same direction, no matter which way you point it. If you turned it upside-down, it should give off the elctrons in the opposite direction, but it doesn't.
So all the alien has to do is say, "my blurk (or sklurk) hand is in the direction of emission of the cobalt electrons", and we will know which of OUR hands he is referring to.
The upshot is that nature is right-handed (or left-handed, we cannot tell which!).
Now that we have proved that left/right are unequal, to cancel it out we should prove that black/white are equal, but we should be doubly careful of those "Ped Xing"s.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Just what IS the difference between left and right?
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5 comments:
1. Cobalt-60 We just don't know (As Mr Moore would say). We just know there is a "preference"
2. It was a poor reference to the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and not serious in any way.
Applause!!! All that left/right stuff was worth it to return me to Madame Wu. Not sure if you introduced her to me or not, but I have previously read that link with GREAT fascination. Brilliant lady!!! Must read again in near future.
Wonder if there could be some kind of internal gyroscopic principle involving tiny, yet powerful magnetic field(s) causing this? A wild guess without rereading the subject. I know, too much speculation; too little science.
Yes, it emits the beta-particles relative to the universe, thus detroying Mans' cherished belief that science was ambidextrous.
The difference between left and right isn’t a physical thing. We are taught that there is left and right to make us understand there are opposites too one another and we should never take anything for granted. For what we know about opposites there is one great saying. ‘Opposites attract‘I think this would explain virtually every conflict that has ever happened in the world. It is also the reason for some of the greatest love matches in the world. Anyway I think it’s very harsh of me to be commenting on such ideas as this. What is the difference? To me nothing as I am ambidextrous!
Colour? Colour is an optical illusion of how light illuminates pigments and gives the illusion that there is colour when in reality there isn’t. If you make a spinning top and evenly mark white and black segments then spin the top as fast as you can. You will find it gives the true colour being white. Because the top is spinning so fast light isn’t being given the opportunity to illuminate the black and give the impression of colour. You can also do this same spinning top multi coloured and get the same results. As for black and white being opposites? It’s not true, black is a man made colour that is made up of many colours. Because the colour black is a mix of so many other colours it has no true definition so can not be a true opposite to any other colour.
Dear RuggyNo1729.
The answer to the left-right riddle is this: There IS a difference.
From a physics point of view, "black" is the absence of light. It is a color only to painters and the suchlike who work and use other pigments.
There is a disc (Benham's Disc)covered in black and white markings only, which, when spun, yields reds and greens. This is proof that 'colors" are only what we percieve. See http://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/benhams_disk.html
There was a Yahoo Answers question posed like this. One guy gave the "correct" answer that black and white, to him, are the same (he is involved with VDUs), just different brightness. See Eric Tolman http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006011701480
I didn't bother logging on to comment that by his own logic, he "proved" that ANY color is just a brighter shade of "black".
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