PHYSICS - Right Handed World?

[nikshliker]

Throughout my physics class during the electricity and magnetism section I ponderd on why the world showed right handedness. If you read about the hall effect and how charges are subject to forces determined by a cross product (more notibly known as the right hand rule) they never seem to give an exact cause. I asked my TA and he could only postulate a simple answer. He said, as well as I can remember, that it had to do with the spins of each atom and the subparticles in the atom just as when you apply a force to a gyroscope you get another force in a different direction. My question is simple..... WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN? What is the reason for a right handed world? kinda backs the idea of the left hand being evil.. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[Saiph]

Well, I don't know why the fields work the way they do (that may do with atomic spins and such).<br /><br />I do know that you can switch it around by altering the coordinate systems. Physics operates on a right handed coordinate system. That's an arbitrary choice, it could just as easily be a left handed system.<br /><br />By doing that, you'd use the left hand rule for physics, and you'd get the same answer, but with flipped signs. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector.  Goes "bing" when there's stuff.  It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually.  I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[igorsboss]

I recall listening to the Feynman Lectures on Physics, in which Prof. Richard Feynman describes a hypothetical communication with an alien race in an alternate universe. In his thought experiment, the alien race could be either matter or antimatter, we don't know which.<br /><br />Suppose we begin a dialogue with an alien race, in which we can communicate only verbally. We work out ways to communicate numbers and physical laws just fine, except for one hitch.<br /><br />It turns out that there is no way to communicate the concept of right and left unless you know that you are talking about matter or antimatter. <br /><br />That is, right-handed laws in a universe of matter are indistinguishable from left-handed laws in a universe of antimatter.<br /><br />Feynman's punchline: Suppose one day, we work out a way for our two races to finally meet. If the alien holds out his left hand for a handshake, watch out!

 

[Saiph]

<img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector.  Goes "bing" when there's stuff.  It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually.  I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[yevaud]

That was also the ending lines from a 1950's article on Antimatter and Doctor Edward Teller:<br /><br />"Dr. Teller and Dr. Anti-Teller met. Their hands clapsed, and the rest was Gamma rays..." <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[nikshliker]

I understand that we first developed a coordinate system then discovered the properties of magnetic forces on moving charges and how you could change it into a left hand rule by simply changing your orientation of X-Y-Z axis. The puzzling part to me is why a force even exists and what is driving the force. As of today I have yet to achieve a detailed explanation of this. Assuming it works like a gyroscope why are the forces perpendicular to eachother all the time?

 

[siarad]

Maybe right handed people thought it up <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br />Coming from the UK we <i>used</i> to have a famous make of car MG (Morris Garages).<br />M for Motors was LH letter so LH rule & G for Generators was RH letter so RH rule<br />The cross rule i.e. direction of using a screwdriver got over the problem of CW & Anti-CW long before digital clocks came about <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" />

 

[Saiph]

for rotation it's done that way because thats where the vector forces all add up from the momentum and motion of the mass.<br /><br />Now, for magnetism...beats me. I've always wondered why the force always acts perpendicular to the velocity...always perpendicular. Magnetism can't do "work" in the sense physics means "work", since it can't exert a force in the direction of travel.<br /><br />Very odd. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p align="center"><font color="#c0c0c0"><br /></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">--------</font></em></font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">----</font></em></font><font color="#666699">SaiphMOD@gmail.com </font><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">-------------------</font></em></font></p><p><font color="#999999"><em><font size="1">"This is my Timey Wimey Detector.  Goes "bing" when there's stuff.  It also fries eggs at 30 paces, wether you want it to or not actually.  I've learned to stay away from hens: It's not pretty when they blow" -- </font></em></font><font size="1" color="#999999">The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[glutomoto]

Re: PHYSICS - Right Handed World - BIOLOGY Too ?<br /><br /> Don't know much biology, but i remember some stuff about how all living things have right handed protiens. On the other hand.<br /><br /> Some of the biology talk sounds like what you all have been saying about the physics.<br /><br /><i>From On the Other Hand;</i><br /><hr /><blockquote>So it is easy to rationalize why we have a chiral world, but it is not so easy to explain how we got the one we have. Why L-amino acids? Was the choice between L- and D- a random one, or does it offer some clues as to the early biochemistry of life?</blockquote><hr /><br /><br /><br />ain't the universe strange ?<br /><img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[newtonian]

Glutromoto - L means left, not right. Right?<br /><br />So, if you change your choice to be the only way left if not right then your post would say left which would be right.<br /><br />Seriously - life's molecules are left-handed polarized - it is evidence of intelligent design and cannot be explained by pure chance.<br /><br />Likewise, the laws of physics are fine tuned for life.<br /><br />The fact that we have laws and order is evidence of intelligent design.<br /><br />Laws require a lawgiver or lawmaker.<br />