Why do scissors only work in one hand and not the other?
In: Engineering
Scissors, and the motion you make while using them are more complex than they might initially seem. If you look between the blades of good quality scissors as you open and close them, you’ll notice that they only actually touch in one spot, that moves along the blades as they slice. Getting the blades to touch in this way requires both a fairly complex twist and curvature on the blades, and a slight sideways force you apply with your hands. Usually you learn to apply this sideways force as you cut with scissors as a child, and do it without thinking about it. The thing is, your hand can only really apply this force efficiently in one direction, and the direction it needs to be in is determined by which blade is closer to you. So, right- and left-handed people need scissors that are mirror images of each other if they want to be able to use them well.
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