h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As long as no one slams a door in my face I can't say I care about doors being opened for me..though I appreciate some help if it's a heavy door because my hands are much less strong due to arthritis and are little painful at times.

Just a few questions or comments:

>some advice to Americans visiting Britain - we only use the terms 'Sunwise' and 'Widdershins' for clockwise/anticlockwise

I always thought 'anticlockwise' was a British term, I am sure I have seen it used in technical books for my MG cars. In the US we say counterclockwise.

>Surely rotating doors go whichever way you push them?

The leaves are actually designed to collapse if you push hard enough to ollow both sides to be used in an emergency. Please don't test this unless you have to

F S

I'm not sure what the circumstances would be under which I would have to test it....

I normally say counterclockwise, but I opted for anti-clockwise earlier since there are usually more readers in the UK.


I just checked that "other" user created encyclopedia and it confirmed a few things for me. One is that, indeed, most manually operated revolving doors (as opposed to motor driven ones) only rotate in one direction. This is determined by either a governor mechanism (which also may limit the rotational speed) or by the weather stripping.

Their article also confirmed that some revolving doors can be "unlocked" such that the doors can be removed or swung such that people can pass through both sides in one direction in case of evacuation.

Also, I was partially correct regarding rotational direction. Most right hand drive countries like the US, France, Germany, &c have doors that rotate counterclockwise while left hand drive countries like Australia and New Zealand rotate clockwise. But the UK has mixed doors apparently.

I would have expected more consistency.

The reason revolving doors are widdershins is because people are generally right-handed.

This is the reason folks in the UK drive on the left - it derives ultimately from jousting.

American visitors to the UK may care to know that freeways (motorways) here are closed on Sunday afternoons so that Premier League jousting matches can take place.

"Also, I was partially correct regarding rotational direction. Most right hand drive countries like the US, France, Germany, &c have doors that rotate counterclockwise while left hand drive countries like Australia and New Zealand rotate clockwise. But the UK has mixed doors apparently."

This appears the rotation of is influenced by the hemisphere in which they are located?

Ah... Like toilet bowl rotation, influenced by Coriolis forces*.

Got it!













*A common misconception.

The question is the effect either acts on the doors or subconsciously on the architects and door makers which one

"Like toilet bowl rotation, influenced by Coriolis forces" [baron Grim]

I'm not going to point out the obvious, namely that the world is going down the toilet.

On a whim this weekend I purchased a copy of Viz, my first since about 1991, when it was styling itself "The magazine that's not funny any more - AND THAT'S OFFICIAL!".

It's still brilliant.

In particular, there was one entry in "Roger's Profanisaurus" (which appears to be a regular column now) that I'm still laughing about. It concerns an act so disgusting I shall not even attempt to euphemise about it. The genius, though, is this: The definition takes two sentences. The first sentence describes the aforementioned act in Profanisaurus terms. The second sentence simply says "This country is going to the dogs."

I'm amazed the quality is still this high so many decades on.