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

If you screw a lightbulb into a socket by turning the bulb
toward the right with your right hand, which way would you turn the
"socket" with your left hand in order to unscrew it while holding the
bulb stationary?

To the right.
(anti-clockwise)

to the left

Well, one of us must be right!

Why would you even *want* to do that?
That is soooooo dangerous!
Especially if balanced on a wobbly step-ladder.

Straight forward backwards

It depends on whether your looking ~down~ at your left hand or looking ~up~ at your left hand.

I would just hold the bulb stationary, while the world revolved around me.



Old joke, I know. I believe Witty is correct.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, d'Elaphant. I'm so confused!!!

I asked two RL mates, and they agreed with me.

*Sometimes* I feel I'm a RLperson myself

I think Mina is right (right) Unscrew it? Is it lit? If so, it's to hot to hold! Witty, I understand you SO well (being Muse of Confusion) Ottox, that sounds serious, have you tried the h2g2 Addiction Clinic: http://www.h2g2.com/F26623?thread=41925&post=608624 I can't believe this, all day at w*rk I've been hovering above this Forum like a vulture, and then the question is posted while I'm on MY WAY HOME.... *sob*

To the right, clockwise. I think. Clocks do go that way around, don't they?

Right...you'd definitely turn it to the right...unless of course you fell off the chair you were standing on in which case the lightbulb would break and then the base would be jammed in there forever with no chance of removing it

My answer is (if you could do such a thing with the wires involved and assuming you're looking onto the light the same way as you were when you were unscrewing it with your right hand the first time): to the right. This is clockwise, contrary to the first answer (which was correct initially, but put it as 'anti-clockwise').

As for my timing, I take a quote from The Simpsons: "Ach ... I'm bad at this!" - Groundskeeper Willie

To remove the base of a broken light bulb from a socket:

First, turn the power OFF.

Second, take a raw potato and and firmly press it into the broken bulb base.

Third, unscrew the potato from the socket and the bulb base should come with it.

BTW, I really think this answer goes either way. It's like the rotation of the earth. Looking from space at the North Pole, it's counter-clockwise (left). Looking from space at the South Pole, it's clockwise (right). I mentally flipped the socket around before I unscrewed it from the bulb.

Sigh... I've spent way too much time thinking about this.

My first instinct is to go with Mina. Lemme check...

*goes and plays with several lights on her co-workers' desks*

Yes. You turn it to the right.

G7

Witty is right, er... correct. It depends on your point of view.

If you were looking from the bulb side, you would turn the socket to the right. If you were looking from the socket side, you'd turn it left. But the rule is usually 'righty tighty, lefty loosey'.

It doesn't matter which hand you turn it with - it's still going to be to the left.

I would, on the face of it, too, say "right", but I withhold my judgment here because I need to know if we are looking at it from the top or the bottom (having, in the one case, turned it upside down).

How many H2G2 researchers does it take to unscrew a lightbulb?