Handedness

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AltarEgo
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Handedness

Post by AltarEgo » Tue Mar 23, 2010 5:20 pm

Some galaxies spiral clockwise and others anti-clockwise. Is there a preference or preponderance of handedness in the Universe?


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neufer
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Re: Handedness

Post by neufer » Tue Mar 23, 2010 5:33 pm

  • MISALLIANCE by Flanders and Swann

    The fragrant honeysuckle spirals clockwise to the sun,
    And many other creepers do the same,
    But some climb anticlockwise; the bindweed does, for one,
    Or Convulvulus, to give its proper name.

    Rooted on either side of the door, one of each species grew,
    And raced towards the window ledge above.
    Each one corkscrewed to the lintel in the only way it knew,
    Touched tendrils, smiled, and fell in love.

    Said the right-hand-thread honeysuckle to the left-hand-thread bindweed,
    “Oh! Let us get married if my parents don't mind. We’d
    Be loving and inseparable, inexplicably entwined. We'd
    Live happily ever after,” said the honeysuckle to the bindweed.

    To the honeysuckle's parents it came as a shock.
    The bindweed, they said, are inferior stock.
    They're uncultivated, of breeding bereft.
    We twine to the right while they twine to the left.

    Said the anticlockwise bindweed, to the clockwise honeysuckle:
    “We’d better start saving—many a mickle mak's a muckle—
    Then run away for a honeymoon and hope that our luck'll
    Take a turn for the better,” said the bindweed to the honeysuckle,

    A bee who was passing remarked to them then:
    “I've said it before and I'll say it again:
    Consider your offshoot, if offshoots there be.
    They'll never receive any blessings from me.

    Poor little sucker! How will it learn
    When it's climbing which way to turn?
    Right? Left? What a disgrace!
    Or it may go straight upwards and fall flat on its face."

    Said the right-hand-thread honeysuckle to the left-hand-thread bind-
    Weed: “It seems that against us all fate has combined,
    Oh, my darling, Oh, my darling, Oh, my darling Columbine,
    Thou art lost and gone forever. We shall never be entwined."

    Together they found them the very next day.
    They had pulled up their root and just shriveled away.
    Deprived of the freedom for which we must fight,
    To veer to the left, or to veer to the right.

    Copyright: International Music Publications Limited
    Griffin House 161 Hammersmith Rd London W6 8BS
Art Neuendorffer

Wayne
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Re: Handedness

Post by Wayne » Tue Mar 23, 2010 5:36 pm

A clockwise spiral is just an anti-clockwise spiral seen from the other side. And an anti-clockwise spiral is a clockwise spiral seen from the other side.

They're equivalent and depend entirely on which direction you're looking from. Hence there can be no preference for either.

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neufer
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Re: Handedness

Post by neufer » Tue Mar 23, 2010 5:55 pm

Wayne wrote:A clockwise spiral is just an anti-clockwise spiral seen from the other side.
And an anti-clockwise spiral is a clockwise spiral seen from the other side.

They're equivalent and depend entirely on which direction you're looking from.
Hence there can be no preference for either.
That still begs the question on
whether there is an overall angular momentum to the universe
such that in some direction there are more clockwise spirals while
in the opposite direction there are more counter-clockwise spirals.
Art Neuendorffer

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Chris Peterson
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Re: Handedness

Post by Chris Peterson » Tue Mar 23, 2010 7:28 pm

neufer wrote:That still begs the question on whether there is an overall angular momentum to the universe such that in some direction there are more clockwise spirals while in the opposite direction there are more counter-clockwise spirals.
That's probably an impossible question to answer. There is evidence that galaxies in clusters and along void walls have related alignments. And galaxies have their spin axes changed over time by interactions with other galaxies. Of course, the Universe as a whole may have some angular momentum that is unrelated to the sum of the momentums of all the galaxies it contains.
Chris

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