The world has a lot of different standards for a lot of things, but I have never heard of a place with the default screw thread direction being opposite.
So does each language have a fun mnemonic?
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The Spanish version is my favourite: la derecha oprime y la izquierda libera (the right oppresses and the left liberates)
In austrian german dialect, “Mit da Ua, draht ma zua.” which in standard german would be “Mit der Uhr, dreht man zu.” and in english “With the clock, turn it closed.” or something like that.
Not for screwing/unscrewing but in France we have a satire mnemonic for remembering right and left:
The right hand is the one with the thumb pointing left.
Works only if you look at the back of your hands, and obviously not useful. We use it mainly to mock someone who mix right and left
In English we’ll say, “Your other <right/left>”, depending on which direction the person is messing up.
I think that one is universal
I’m Norwegian. I never learned a rule in my language and always just went by instinct. Until ~3rd year of university in physics where someone told me tha the right-hand-rule applies to screws. Now I use that everywhere for screws in strange positions.
Can you elaborate? I googled the right hand rule, but I’m not seeing how it applies to screws.
Grab around a screw with your right hand and extend your thumb (like a thumbs up). Then rotating the screw in the direction which your fingers are pointing will result in the screw moving in the direction your thumb is pointing.
Thumbs up for lifting the screw upwards, thumbs down for screwing the screw downwards. And you can move your hand around to figure out screwing directions for any tricky spots.
Well, this was a life-changing comment.
In Dutch we have DROL, Dicht recht, open links. So close right, open left as a very strict translation. But DROL is also Dutch for turd.
Huh, I always say links los, rechts rotsvast
Edit: or, this: links verlost, rechts rekent in
The right oppresses, the left liberates
Lmao
Ah yes the famed spaniard mao
“La derecha oprime y la izquierda libera”
The right oppresses, the left liberates
Never heard of that. When attending a trade school there was never the necessity of a mnemotechnic to know in which direction turn the tool.
As other mentioned this kind of phrase is useless if you are in the opposite side of the thing you want to tighten/loose.
What I always heard is “la regla del destornillador” (the screwdriver rule), as a substitute for the right hand rule.
It depends which bicycle pedal you’re screwing in. They have opposite threads, designed where they’re self tightening on each side.
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