Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016)

Re:Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016) by raldi on Tuesday July 23, 2019 @03:01AM (#20504982)

I don't follow. If we're communicating with aliens that we somehow know are made of matter, we tell them that right is the direction a horizontal wire carrying positive current away from us gets pushed by a vertical magnetic field.

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Re:Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016) by yorwba on Tuesday July 23, 2019 @03:44AM (#20505130)

That just shifts the problem to specifying the direction of the magnetic field, and you can't use the concept of left vs. right in that definition without creating a circular dependency.

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Re:Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016) by pbhjpbhj on Tuesday July 23, 2019 @05:19AM (#20505443)

Vertically up it's just too a higher local gravitational potential, no? Sure, we flip right-left when we look at things upside down, but that's a nuanced usage.

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Re:Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016) by yorwba on Tuesday July 23, 2019 @05:37AM (#20505500)

How do you determine whether your magnetic field is pointing up and not down?

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Re:Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016) by goldenkey on Tuesday July 23, 2019 @09:23AM (#20506504)

Closer and farther can be used to explain up and down.

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Re:Multi-Layer Dictionary (2016) by yorwba on Tuesday July 23, 2019 @11:21AM (#20507421)

How do you use closer and farther to determine whether a magnetic field is pointing up or down? It's not like there are little arrows on magnetic field lines you can just look at.

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