Why Do We Turn Counterclockwise to Open?

Imagine when you’re thirsty, you pick up a bottle of water, and without the slightest hesitation, you remove the cap by turning it counterclockwise. There’s no instruction on the bottle about which orientation you should turn to remove the cap.

But you just know it.

Why does counterclockwise orientation mean to open while clockwise mean to close?

Right-hand thread and right-hand rule:

Before answering the question, let’s have a look at the definition of right-hand thread and right-hand rule.

A thread is a helical structure used to convert between rotational and linear movement or force. Things like screws, bottle caps, bulbs use this structure. Thread can be classified into right-hand thread and left-hand thread in terms of helix orientation. Most fasteners with threads are turned counterclockwise to loosen while clockwise to tighten them. And these are called right-hand threaded fasteners.

Right-hand thread follows the right-hand rule. That is to say that when you use your right hand to grip the thread, with your thumb pointing to the linear movement direction of the thread, the orientation that your other fingers bend to is the rotation orientation of the thread.

There are also some examples of left-hand thread utilisation: the left pedal of a bicycle, some of the medicine bottle caps, etc.

Why do most threads are right-handed?

The reason for the clockwise orientation of most screws and bolts is that supination of the arm, which is used by a right-handed person to turn a screw clockwise, is generally stronger than pronation.

It’s easier to tighten a fastener by using the supination than pronation. So for the right-handed people, the clockwise rotation, which requires more power, should be done by the supination.

Well, this is another decision made in favour of the right-handed.

The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon: It’s Not a Coincidence

You’ve just heard about this phenomenon before? If not, trust me, you probably will soon. And that’s what we call the “Baader-Meinhof phenomenon“.

It was not long before I heard the word “pseudoscientific” in TBBT when I first learnt it from a book. It seems like an interesting coincidence because as far as I’m concerned, it’s not a usual word that can be seen anywhere. However, I saw it twice over a very short period of time.

The phenomenon was first introduced in 1986 by Terry Mullen, a reader of St. Paul Pioneer Press. He wrote to the column “Bulletin Board” to describe this kind of feeling. He said that after he first heard about the “Baader-Meinhof Gang”, the Red Army Faction and left-wing German terrorism, he occasionally came across that term again before long. Terry’s story struck a chord with the other readers as well; hence the phenomenon was named “Baader-Meinhof phenomenon”.

If a concept or thing you just found out about suddenly seems to crop up everywhere, then you’re experiencing the “Baader-Meinhof phenomenon”.

It’s not only a coincidence. It’s psychologically a little bit like “synchronicity“. The concept of synchronicity can be explained as “a meaningful coincidence”. It’s like your girlfriend is calling you when you happen to think of her, or you get a message from your boyfriend as soon as you pick up your phone. If these coincidences occur several times (and actually they will), you’ll not treat them as coincidences only.

There’s another psychological term – “selective attention“. It’s when your brain ignores those usual things or unfamiliar things for you automatically. You pay no extra attention to the message your bank sends to you even if simultaneously you’re looking at your phone, right? You think it’s a small world when you meet your old friend in a strange city but you’ll never say it’s a big world when you don’t meet any of your acquaintances there. Our brain takes away what we don’t care and leaves what we’re interested in. And if this happens repeatedly, you’ll experience the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon more often.

It is clear now why there are always some strange coincidences around you. It’s hard to explain, because they’re not just coincidences.

Why Do They Use Laugh Tracks?

We may hate laugh tracks at first, but then get used to it. And somehow, we start to love it and laugh with those strangers.

The first known use of a laugh track is said to be in 1950, when the producers of the Hank McCune Show added canned laughter after the show’s taping.

Later in our time, as we all know, “Friends”,”The Big Bang Theory” and many hot sitcoms use laugh tracks to end punchlines. These laugh tracks are from live audience so can possibly be called “live laugh tracks”.

The laugh track  is not generally accepted and there are probably 2 reasons:

1. I don’t think it’s funny, but why they’re laughing?

2. I know it’s funny, I don’t need them to remind me.

Laugh tracks are used to highlight the punchlines. When you don’t get the point, they remind you to think twice. When you do, they help you laugh harder. In a TBBT fans party, the host said, “sometimes I don’t know what they’re talking about, but I just can’t stop laughing.” See, that’s what the laugh tracks want us to do. In a more scientific way, others’ laughter can stimulate the face-related part of our brains and in fact, laughter is infectious.

Of course, it sounds absurd to make people laugh only by using laugh tracks. Laugh tracks are catalysts or signs saying “Yes, it is hilarious. Your sense of humour is not weird at all. Do laugh!”

The live laugh tracks are more natural than the canned one, since there is not only laughter but other sounds as well, like Awww, Ohhh, etc. But it’s not flawless, for example if the bloopers occur, the punchline may become less funny for the live audience to laugh. Then we need another technology – Sweetening. It “juices up” the original laugh track or replaces the live laugh track with the canned one in order to improve the effect of  that track.

Why have a look at this video clip of TBBT without a laugh track? At least I think it’s kinda weird.

Interesting Thing: Rube Goldberg Machine

A Rube Goldberg machine is a deliberately over-engineered or overdone machine that performs a very simple task in a very complex fashion, usually including a chain reaction.

Check out this amazing music video:

How to make your own Rube Goldberg machine?

Step1. Choose your task.

It’s important to know your purpose of your Rube Goldberg machine. It is a very simple task and do make sure the task can be performed by unintelligent devices.

Step2. Decide how many steps you need.

For example, 100 steps, 1 minute and so on. In 2011 a Rube Goldberg machine called “Time Machine” broke the Guinness World Records, having 244 steps and taking half-and-two-minute’s time.

Step3. Decide a theme.

If you want more wholeness in your machine, you should give it a theme. Things like toy, vehicle, food, office can all be considered. Orientate your Rube Goldberg machine to a certain theme will also give you an idea about the setting of the steps and the selection of the materials.

Step4. Brainstorm.

Now you need inspiration! Rube Goldberg machine is born to be creative. Write down all of your ideas and thoughts. It’s a good way to train your brain by creating a Rube Goldberg machine.

Step5. Draw a draft.

Combine all the ideas you think are useful and draw a draft. Before assemble it, you should check your draft, making sure there is no error to the best of your ability.

Step6. Assemble the machine.

It would be great fun to put your idea into reality. Note that Rube Goldberg machines have a tendency to get very large, so do make sure your design maximizes vertical space or coils in on itself to keep it under control.

Step7. Test repeatedly.

The machine may fail at first, but don’t worry, it happens. Modify or even replace steps when they fail to make the machine run smoothly.

Step8. Decorate it.

Use paint, furniture polish, trim, or anything else that might enhance your design. Every Rube Goldberg machine is customisable!

The Barnum Effect: Believe It or Not

Astrology is always a hot topic for many people. But when you say “Exactly, that is me!”, you fall into another psychological trap – Barnum effect.

In TBBT Sheldon defined Penny as a girl who “participate in the mass cultural delusion that the sun’s apparent position relative to arbitrarily defined constellations at the time of your birth somehow affects your personality”. Well, most of us are not as mean as Sheldon though we’re not that believe in it. We treat astrology as an entertainment but we can’t always ignore some analyses and predictions because they seem so true!

Then the Barnum Effect may spoil the fun of astrology analysis.

Bertram R. Forer, a psychologist, used to give a personality test to his students. The students were asked to answer some questions and based on the answers, Bertram analysed the students’ characters:

“You have a great need for other people to like and admire you. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them… You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others… Security is one of your major goals in life.”

However, he was cheating, because every student got the same analysis. Interestingly, in the satisfaction survey about the test results, the students marked 4.26 out of 5 on average.

Are they the same in characters? Definitely not.

The experiment above is a great example of the Barnum effect: when a person is reading an analysis customised only for  him, he just can’t help but trust it, regardless the fact that it can actually be used for anyone in the world.

There are three tips of this trick:

1. Make your object believe that your analysis is just made for him.

2.Give your analysis an authorised identification.

3.More positive remarks than negative ones.

So you see, actually it’s up to you whether believe it or not. It’s just another magic of psychology.

Hello, World!

Does my first blog title look kinda geeky? Or you think it’s just a greeting to the world?

Actually “Hello, world” is also a computer program that outputs “Hello, world” on a display device. It’s considered as the simplest program, so almost every programming textbook uses it as the first sample; hence by tradition, ‘hello, world’ is the start for most beginner programmers.

“Hello, world” program dates back to 1972 when Brian Kernighan introduced it as a sample in his book Tutorial Introduction to the Language B. In his sample, “hello, world” was all in lower case, and there was a space after the comma and no exclamation mark at the end. Although the format is not in use any more, it’s still a convention to greet the world by saying “Hello, world”.

Now you can smell the scent of science in my blog (I hope so.) and you can guess what I’d like to write about:

Our daily life is filled with a lot of trivia knowledge. They’re quite interesting and can be found everywhere but are rarely noticed as well. You can’t find the answer in your textbook and you don’t even ask. But I believe that any knowledge is good knowledge and is worth having, so I will show you the fun of trivia exploration and will learn those mind-blowing facts together with you.

So, without further ado, let my blog say hello to the world! Viva la trivia!