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?
Photo credit: https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Giy8OrYJTjw/Tfm9Ne5o5hI/AAAAAAAAAB4/c7uBLwjkl9c/s1600/scan0002.jpg
The Spanish version is my favourite: la derecha oprime y la izquierda libera (the right oppresses and the left liberates)
Oh wow that one is really good :D
BASED
I’m using this in every language I speak from now on!
I had never heard that before. Is that a region or country-specific thing?
Definitely not a common phrase. I’ve never heard of it (from Spain) and I just asked about 10 others from other countries and only one has. We usually would just say clockwise or counterclockwise
Isn’t everything in Spanish?
Holy shit, fucking hell, now this is some goddamn wordplay!
I’m stealing this like the fucking British Museum.
I don’t speak Spanish, but is there a reason this works well as a mnemonic? Like is there a reason you can’t misremember it as la izquierda oprime y la derecha libera? Because the English phrase works by alliteration.
Edit: i guess if you think of it in terms of politics that helps
I think I saw that on reddit 2years ago, thank you for reminding me how’s the actual saying (I ~have adopted ever since I saw it, lol)
¡Gracias por la lección de español de hoy!
“La derecha oprime y la izquierda libera”
The right oppresses, the left liberates
La derecha oprime y la izquierda libera
I just knew that would be Spanish, without being able to speak more than a few words. It works far better than our effort and is both a sardonic and satirical political comment.
Well played Spanish if that really is the equivalent in common usage. Our effort sounds like it was invented by a young child whilst responding to a BBC quiz.
I’ve never heard this, But it’s great
I love Spanish, damn that’s a good way to say it.
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.
People on the other side don’t deserve a mnemonic.
We say the same thing in Brazil, but in portuguese: “A direita oprime, a esquerda liberta.”
I never really got that one, because “left” vs “right” only works when you are looking at the top of the screw. At the bottom, left tightens, and right loosens. So the one I remember is “clockwise to close”.
Edit: the image on the post is actually a good example. If I’m off the screen to the right holding the spanner, then from my perspective, “left” would tighten.
I’ve always thought this too. I understand clockwise/anticlockwise and the direction being defined from the top - but it’s a circle - no matter which way you turn, it spends 50% of the time going either direction. The phrase works with screwdrivers (especially ratcheting ones), but not so much spanners or Hex Keys IMO.
I always railed against this. I’m using clockwise-lockwise from now on.
Agreed. If the screw moves left or right, it fell out of its hole, lol. I guess “clockwise” is hard to rhyme.
It works for screws, but as a kid, I was never sure if the clock on the wall should be visualized attached to the ceiling or on the floor when saying “clockwise”. So I was always a bit hessitant on that.
If you mime tightening a bolt, your thumb moves to the right. And vise versa.
Left or right-handed?
Both. Odd that you would ask without trying it yourself.
With my left hand, my thumb starts facing right, and then sort of goes down and towards the left.
Am i weird if i tighten bolts by moving my fingers up/down intsead of side to side?
Nah I do the same till it’s loose, it’s faster to rotate with minimal rotation. But once it get harder then I do slower but larger rotations with thumb starting from left side and goes towards right for like 120°.
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.
Neat. Would be engineering related lol
In English, there’s also “clockwise-lockwise”. It makes more sense than talking about left and right.
I’m gonna try this with my son, he knows with way clocks go better than his left and right.
Interesting. I learned it as “Wie die Ua, so gehts zua”
The right oppresses, the left liberates
Lmao
Ah yes the famed spaniard mao
The German version as actually survived its original time frame: “So lang das Deutsche Reich besteht, wird Schraube fest nach rechts gedreht” - “As long as the German Reich exists, a screw is tightened by turning right”
yeah, this one is only for inside voice. I won’t be teaching it to anyone anymore.
I’m German, and I’ve never heard that before. I’d be seriously weirded out by someone saying that or teaching it to their kids
I have to admit that this is rather old. So old, in fact, that it does not refer to the Third Reich but the Kaiserreich.
That’s better but not that by much. A few years ago Germany raided some very rich and very well-armed wackos who wanted to bring back the Kaiserreich.
Just like a number of very rich and well armed wackos want to bring back Trump in the US.
German conspiracy wackos and American ones have a lot in common.
During COVID their bullshit ven diagram was a flat circle.
I don’t think anyone thought it was about the third reich
Probably someone did. Not all English-speakers know about the first two, even though they’re implied by “third”.
I daresay that 99% of “English-speakers” never wasted a thought on why the Third Reich actually was the third.
And honestly, it could be that 90% wouldn’t know what the HRE was or who the Kaiser was once you told them. It’s just not a thing that usually comes up in everyday life.
Yup this was me. I knew it was the third, but it never occurred to me to ask what the other 2 were
TBH I knew about the Kaiserreich, but I had to look up the first one myself. It was the Holy Roman Empire. (Which wasn’t really much of a reich, but the Nazis weren’t noted for their attention to historical accuracy)
Never underestimate the incompetence of people, especially in the US, with regards to history. Just look how they are basically trying to recreate Germany’s 1933 at the moment.
still mentioned twice in the thread. It‘s fucked up how often one would come across Germans casually throwing around Nazi language, looking for confirmation and when not receiving it claiming it’s just innocent fun. HiHiHi
Well, but is actually is not Nazi language in this case.
you think people don’t use it in that context?
also, because you‘re so adamant, I tried to find a source for your claim. I failed. Want to share?
My source is my grandfather, who learned this during his vocational training, which predates the Nazis by quite a few years.
So … shouldn’t German screws now turn to the left?
See!!! This is why communism is bad!! Since you’ve started turning everything to the left, it’s all come apart!!
Nar. A statement and its converse are not equivalent.
Never heard of this. We say ‘auf links, rechts zu’ and simply order the words alphabetically
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.
Well, this was a life-changing comment.
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.
Beware the left handed screws, they’re around but rare. My last encounter was inside a vacuum cleaner motor assembly.
Propane and propane accessories also use left-handed threading. It can be really weird to get used to after a lifetime of righty tighty.
Great explanation, thanks
I’m indian and learns right hand screw rule in high school physics
I’ve heard the right hand rule regarding magnetism and current direction (because it’s useful to illustrate correlation between vectors), but never about screws. Now that I think of it, it makes perfect sense there too, only that you have to imagine a thumb pointing down most of the time…
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
What’s the phrase in French?
La main droite, c’est celle qui a le pouce à gauche
Not sure about the thumb one but for screws with only have:
- Visser : sens des aiguilles d’une montre (clockwise)
- Dévisser : sens contraire des aiguilles d’une montre (anti clockwise)
Dad? Is that you ?
We got that one in Germany as well
I’ve never heard something like this
Are there lots of French who can’t easily tell left from right? I feel like one of the few sad Americans who can’t. Would love to know why. I always chalked it up to a lack of coordination.
I’d say as many as in other countries
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.
A droll factoid.
Never heard of that, I just remembered from my dad that clockwise is tight and counterclockwise is loose.
Same here, except for my dad, he is clumsy as hell.
Huh, I always say links los, rechts rotsvast
Edit: or, this: links verlost, rechts rekent in
Solang das Deutsche Reich besteht, wird die Schraube rechts gedreht.
That’s a lot of extra words for lefty loosey, righty tighty.
And how are we supposed to turn screws nowadays?
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Don’t you dare give them ideas
Wenn das der Kaiser wüsste!
I guess we’re screwed
You know this has always confused the fuck out of me. You are going around a circle, how is there left and right? There is up-and-left, down-and-left, either way is left. If I am starting on the right of the circle (assuming I’m looking at it) which way is right? Up or down?
Imagine it like a car steering wheel.
You’d say turning the wheel to the right turns the car right.
Think of it like this. Like your hand is holding on the top of the steering wheel.
ok but what is behind this picture? I see fur and old matted flesh? a paw with no nails or an old dogs snout?!?!
It’s better to not ask questions sometimes.
backs away slowly
The starting point is on the top.
This has always annoyed me too. I know why it works, but it’s clockwise and counter-(or anti-)clockwise. If you were turning from the bottom, left and right are mixed up. Maybe it’s just too hard to come up with a phrase using those terms?
Clockwise=lockwise
If it was a wheel, which way would it roll if you turned it like that?
Clockwise = Righty
Or imagine a bottle cap instead of a screw… Muscle memory kicks in.
Thank you! Clockwise looking down at a bottlecap makes sense!
It’s the top part. So if you imagine a little dot at the top (12h) position it would move to the right/clockwise or left/anti-clockwise
Yeah, but once you get one quarter of a rotation through your dot is now moving left.
But the top is still moving right
Use right hand thumb rule. There is no right, there is no left, there is no clockwise or anticlockwise. All of them depend on the way you looks. Rught hand thumb rule fixes it for humans
I always think about the direction that the top of the circle turns to apply left or right rotation, though I usually use muscle memory.
A nice thought until you run into a left handed thread…
It’s works most of them time unless you’re in a specialty trade making spindle, gears, and such that must be threaded backwards to avoid the wheel undoing itself.
Or you work with gas cylinders.
I don’t understand this one, please Airgas
Reverse threads on gas cylinders are (as far as I know) only used for flammables.
I was sure there was a reason, I just never worked in the field long enough to learn or ask why
Thanks 🫡
They’re made that way so you don’t accidentally connect a gas cylinder to a water line.
Fucking facists keeping me from tap en flambé; like they know what is safe.
I heard from a gas guy that this is to ensure that only connectors made for gas usage are used and people don’t build crazy contraptions with plumber gear for flammable gases… Kinda makes sense.
Yep, 80% of the time it works every time!
The point is, if you fix things, you WILL run into left handed threads at some point. I’ve found them in washers, vacuums, blenders, bikes, and cars. Left handed threads aren’t the most common thing, but they are out there waiting to screw with your mind and ruin your day…
And you feel so incredibly dense every time you run into it and you can’t figure out what’s going on. The crank on my kids bike was out of whack the other week and I kept tightening it down and it kept coming back loose. I was turning the crank one way to tighten it which was pushing it against the lock nut but it needed to turn the other way to be pushed against the bearing before I tighten the lock nut down. If it was all right-handed it would have been clear what I was doing.
… and you hope you don’t forget until the next time you have to do it…
Spindles and shafting are places you can find left handed threads. And it depends on the direction of rotation like that bike crank. Can’t have things coming lose due to the way bike cranks turn, so they a left handed thread to stay tight.
It took me a long to time learn that when dealing with such things that I need to stop, look, and think about how things are assembled and why.
Or when you’re screwing in a screw from behind/under something while lying upside down using a ratchet with an angled extender and you aren’t sure which way is actually left/right where the screw is.
Got that tee shirt too!
Finnish doesn’t have one. We just learn it by instinct and use the time saved to warm up the sauna.
Same for Denmark. Except instead of warming up the sauna, it creates time for another Tuborg.
Or we pretend to be opening a Koskenkorva bottle in whatever orientation the bolt is in.
with proper application of sisu, it will open in both directions
“warm up the sauna”
I get slapped when I try that sort of thing on with Sauna.
I can’t think of an equivalent phrase in Bulgarian for that, but it’s known that [most] threads tighten when turning clockwise… and if you don’t know what direction the clock goes, what are you even doing with screws or bolts…
And again there are special cases even outside of threads - for example in plumbing there are some valves that are open when the handle is parallel to the pipe and closed when the handle is perpendicular - and it might just happen that the closing motion happens counterclockwise.
reverse threads are also found on things like bicycles and cars which have parts that spin counter clockwise
Yep, I’m familiar with those - on almost any bycicle the left pedal would tighten to the crank counterclockwise.
Except for the stupid friggin discount stationary bike my wife bought. That must be the exception you’re referring to…
That’s why it’s discounted…
did it keep falling apart? That’s amazing
Made me feel like I was crazy the first time I installed pedals on a bike.
“Lefty Loosey righty tighty”
One arrow points up to the left, one points down to the left.
It’s about direction of rotation, does the wrench turn left or turn right, there isn’t the same notion of up and down / in and out because that portion happens when the bolt or nut turns. Also, anything rotation is moving the opposite direction on the other side of the rotation, so if you have to tighten a screw that turns towards you it’s the opposite
