jeff@rtech.UUCP (06/10/85)
> > An interesting, related bit of trivia is the fact that "left" and > "right" are concepts which can only be communicated among two > parties if both parties can "see" each other. > For those interested, Martin Gardner, of "mathematical recreations" > fame (I THINK it was Martin Gardner) wrote a very interesting book > about the handedness of the universe. You'll have to find the > title yourself. > > Ken McDonald The book is "The Ambidextrous Universe". I don't own the book myself, but I do have an excerpt of it in a science encyclopedia called "The Realm of Science". The article describes the experiment that led to the fall of parity, done by Lee and Yang in 1956. This experiment showed that electrons are more likely to emerge from the south end of a cobalt-60 nucleus than from the north. The article describes how this effect can be used to define "right" and "left" to a remote listener. I will paraphrase: Take atoms of cobalt-60. Cool them to near absolute zero. Put them in a strong magnetic field. The direction in which the atmos emit more electrons we shall call "south". The opposite direction we shall call "north". Now take a magnetized needle, and suspend it over a wire carrying an electric current moving away from you. The direction that the north end of the needle points we shall call "left", and the opposite direction we shall call "right". -- Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.) aka Swazoo Koolak {amdahl, sun}!rtech!jeff {ucbvax, decvax}!mtxinu!rtech!jeff
scent@sask.UUCP (Scent Project) (06/14/85)
> > > > An interesting, related bit of trivia is the fact that "left" and > > "right" are concepts which can only be communicated among two > > parties if both parties can "see" each other. > > For those interested, Martin Gardner, of "mathematical recreations" > > fame (I THINK it was Martin Gardner) wrote a very interesting book > > about the handedness of the universe. You'll have to find the > > title yourself. > > > > Ken McDonald > > The book is "The Ambidextrous Universe". I don't own the book myself, > but I do have an excerpt of it in a science encyclopedia called "The > Realm of Science". The article describes the experiment that led to the > fall of parity, done by Lee and Yang in 1956. This experiment showed that > electrons are more likely to emerge from the south end of a cobalt-60 > nucleus than from the north. The article describes how this effect can > be used to define "right" and "left" to a remote listener. I will > paraphrase: > (Description omitted by KM) As Gardner's book points out, this experiment can be used to tell left from right only if working with matter, not antimatter. However, a previous posting on this subject noted a different way to define handedness, using the neutral K meson, so I guess Gardner's book is dated, after all. Ken "Excuse the Typos" McDonald