Eli5: Why do people mix up left and right but not up and down?
In: Other
Gravity and the fact that the surface of the Earth is relatively flat.
It is much easier to mix up left and right when the place you are going could be in either direction than it is to mix up up or down when you know if you are going into the sky or digging underground.
Up and down are absolute. They’re based on actual physics. Ground is down. Sky is up. Gravity acts downwards. Your body is positioned with legs down and head up.
Left and right are arbitrary and relative to the observer.
Depending on the situation you’re either talking about your right or their right. Which makes right and left a matter of perspective more than up and down.
I think even when people are upside down they consider the ground to be down in the sky to be up
Up and down are objectively different – towards the ground and away from the ground. Try to describe the difference between left and right and you might struggle.
Because up and down are two directions they literally cannot be confused for one another. Up is always towards the sky or ceiling, down is always towards the floor. You have to intimately understand those concepts to be a functioning human being such as walking and moving. Left and right are not descriptors of really anything, while up and down are obvious general things while also being opposites. Very hard to confuse opposites but very easy to confuse two options that are generally the exact same other than name like left and right.
For me it was learning the anatomical position used as a reference in medicine. It places the person standing in front of you, with their head and palms facing you. Their right is in your left side, and their left is on your right side. I got so used to referring to a patient’s left or right that I have to mentally reverse that to speak of my own.
Up and down are a lot more obvious and straight forward. In an anatomical position, up and down don’t change.
Crackpot theory: humans think “towards large body of water or away” and translate that to “left” or “east” or whatever direction. Then when you move to a new large body of water, you are all screwed up.
Unless in a zero-gravity environment, up and down are very obvious. Even if you do a handstand, you will probably still have the same reference for up and down. Down is where gravity pulls you, up is the opposite.
Left and right however are entirely dependent on your point of view. Turn around, and they swap direction. Face someone, and your left and their left are opposites. It varies significantly, and so is easier to get confused.
Well because there is a huge difference between Up and down. Even Gravity tells you how they differ. Its on opposite non-symmetrical sides of your body. Other than the fact that you can use those words to talk about directions, Up and down have very little in common with left and right.
“Head” and “feet” are completely different, which helps make “up” and “down” different too.
“Hand” and “hand” are the same, so you don’t have the same kind of stark difference between “left” and “right”.
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