because i feel like asking a dangerously stupid question, and this is probably the most dangerously stupid forum to ask a dangerously stupid question in.

What is the direction "left"? how does one know which way "left" is?

This is a very simple question from a scientific standpoint.

Left is the side of the road that Richard Dawkins drives on.

The direction relative to the perceptual prime northward axis evident at all points westward.

-Pufer

Three rights.

Hold up both your hands. Now spread out your thumb and index finger to produce an "L." Your left thumb and index finger should produce the "L" properly. This is easy to remember as L stands for Left.

It's entirely to do with sight. It is a direction to the negative side on the x-axis in your field of vision.

The other side from "right."

The side to which my junk doesn't hang.

I believe that the majority of Americans are left-junked. Be sure to mention that you "dress-right" if you're ever buying a good suit, or else you'll be needlessly cramped.

-Pufer

Ok, here's what you do.

Turn backwards and crab walk until you are directly between Pluto and Sol. Do 25 jumping jacks while attempting a triple sow cow on your hands. Trying to do so, you will fall off of a bridge. Once you've fallen off of the bridge, have one of those chase scenes with all of the doors and weird music. This will take you all the way to Chile. In Chile, go to the monkey shaped giraffe and spin around so fast that you drill into the ground. As soon as you have drilled down about -86465 meters, pick up a soccer ball and throw it at the Pentagon, causing it to fall out of the sky. Ski to the place where the pentagon used to be and find a plastic model of the manger scene. In the shortest leg of the manger, you will find your left.


(Yet again... What happens when teens can't sleep...)

Lube gets used up?

-Pufer

You sick, sick man...

waitwaitwait- Americans? Does it go with the (opposite of the) side of the road you drive on or something?

Left means wrong. Here's why:

Left = 'not right'

Wrong = 'not right'

Ergo, left = wrong.

No stupid. two wrong make a right!

therefore Left = Right!

Left = The side of my face that I didn't get creamed on playing dodgeball. I was doing my specialty, which is standing in the middle of the court, just a few steps behind the center line. I dodge dozens of balls easily, and then laugh. Really. I just stand there with my hand crossed behing my back waiting for people to say "Hey, let's hit *My name*, he's just standing there. People always try to hit me, since I'm usually not coordinated, and just stand there. Occassionally I get hit, and the last time, I got smoked in the face by a friend of mine. My glasses flew off and soared half-way across the gym. I don't know how far it was, but I couldn't see them. The last time that happened, there was a person that I don't really get along with, so I kept throwing the ball at her. She hit me in the face, my glasses fell off, and I almost stepped on them, again.

I think my definition is best. It just doesn't work so well with blind people.

It's a good definition, but it's too limiting. Allow me to explain with this example of your left and right hands. If sight defines what is left and right, then you can position both your hands on the positive side of your x-axis of vision and essentially have two right hands. Furthermore, when both your right hands are positioned, you can disprove JacaByte's definition because one of your right hands will be making the L. Problematic? Yes, but I have a solution. Let's go back to my definition:

Assuming this is true, you can have a left hand with the help of a friend. Along with your two right hands, have a friend bring one of his hands onto the positive side of your x-axis of vision. At this point, you have three right hands in your sight. Conclusively, you now have one left hand.

Now I'm going to end this post by saying two things:
1.) Thank God I'm a righty.
2.) Bacon sounds good right now.

This seems an appropriate topic to ask the question of the century;

In what direction do you east?

Excuse me, left for the win! Left is the direction in which the world spins, from my point of view.

I see. And what direction is left?

In the words of a certain famous american, D'oh!

East.

Ah, now we get down to it! So, if left is east, then in what direction do you east?

Left.

I disagree. I east to the west.

Everyone in my family failed to come up with a satisfactory answer except my dad, who said:

"If you're facing the sunrise, left is the direction of the north star, of Polaris."

Everyone here agrees on that, i'm waiting for you guys to poke holes in it.

Does it work in the Southern Hemisphere? I wouldn't know, being at, oh, 48.9 degrees north.

Democrat.

As the old adage goes, "Dress left to impress."

the left side is the side I do not wear my watch on. It is also the side of my dominant eye.

Also, Jacabyte's interpretation only holds up when both hands are supinated and held out in front, at a 90/90 angle from the shoulder.

Same here.

Can't see the north star if you're far enough away from the equator, so not in the same way, but the southern cross works well enough, according to him.

Your left hand is usually defined by where it is attached to your body, not where you're holding it at the time, though surely if your left hand was over to the right side of your body you would say it was on the right side of your body (still a left hand, just on the right). I suppose if somebody was able to turn their head all the way around then either one of their hands could be left or right, but doesn't that actually make sense? If our heads were on backwards, I think left and right would be switched around for that person.

Your left hand is still your left hand no matter where it is in your field of vision, because in your field of vision it is always attached in the left side of your body within your field of vision.

The very idea of having a left hand is rather limited, I would say. Somebody without any thumbs still has a concept of left and right. Presumably an alien intelligence will divide their field of vision into six directions regardless of their anatomy (up, down, left, right, near/backward, far/forward). Leftness is more universal than mere tricks we teach little kids.

Again, you can have a hand to the left of you without being a left hand, and a hand to the right of you without being a right hand. What it's called is based on it's attachment and configuration, not its location in your field of vision. But your field of vision determines what you call its location relative to yourself.

Leftness is entirely based on point of view, that's why people ask the question "your left or mine" when facing different directions. It's about perspective, and no sense is more important to our sense of place and relation to other objects than our vision.



It only applies to a planet with our axial tilt, rotation, and general locality in the universe, which pretty much rules out almost everywhere other than Earth. If you're someplace without a sunrise, you aren't in view of Polaris, your sunrise is at a different angle, or the large body you're standing on is rotating in the opposite direction, left doesn't magically disappear or go off in some wildly different direction (like up or right).

Left defines itself. Just like something I looked up a while back:

Sport - <watered-down definition> see athletics
Athletics - people doing sports, see athlete
Athlete - person who does sports or athletics, see sports

Those are plainly inaccurate definitions. Sports and athletics are not the same.

Well when it says "see this" it doesn't mean that they're synonymous, just that they're similar.

Okay, so we're looking for a truly universal way to determine which direction is left. We'll assume the situation is that it would have to be usable by a being with completely different physiology than us in a different galaxy with no common objects in the night sky to use as reference.

I think our best bet would be to use something from science - something as universal as the laws of physics or chemistry. If they had a knowledge of chemistry, perhaps some asymetrical molecule could be used, but some means of orienting it would be necessary.

We can define up and down using gravitational pull. (I think that we can assume that our far-off being exists on a spherical planet)

Well if you use a 3D coordinate system, left is the -z axis.

You can rotate perspective in 3D space and represenations thereof if you're so inclined.

-Pufer

How would you define a 3D coordinate system? How do you define which is the Z axis? How do you define which direction is the negative direction?

The 3D coordinate system has already been defined, although I don't know how, and so all its parts have been also.

By this logic, I could define left as "the direction that isn't right". Right has already been defined, but I don't know how.

What I meant by "I don't know how" is that it's out there, I just didn't have enough time to go out and look it up. But it's out there.

Sorry, I couldn't help it.

Ahh, yes. The dictionary.

But to define which direction is negative and which direction is positive would require definitions of left and right.

<-- It's over there.