A right-handed Cartesian coordinate system, illustrating the x (right-left), y (forward-backward) and z (up-down) axes relative to a human being. In this illustration, right, up and forward are positive vectors, while left, down and backward are negative vectors. Left and right are defined from the boxer's perspective, rather than the viewer's. You can see the actor Wentworth Miller giving a punch.

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The most common relative directions are: left, right, forward, backward, up, and down. Image File history File links Xyz_boxer. ... Image File history File links Xyz_boxer. ... A person who is right-handed is more dextrous with their right hand than with their left hand: they will write with their right hand, and probably also use this hand for tasks such as personal care, cooking, and so on. ... Fig. ... Wentworth Earl Miller III (born June 2, 1972) is an English-born American actor who achieved fame as Michael Scofield in the FOX television series Prison Break. ... Kinship is a biological and/or familial relationship between two organisms. ... The term direction can be applied to various topics. ...

No absolute direction corresponds to any of the relative directions. This is a consequence of the translational invariance of the laws of physics: nature, loosely speaking, behaves the same no matter what direction one moves. As demonstrated by the Michelson-Morley null result, there is no absolute inertial frame of reference. If you turn around, or if you walk a mile to the east, your relative directions will be the same to you despite having changed in the absolute sense. Look up absolute in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A translation slides an object by a vector a: Ta(p) = p + a. ... Physics (from the Greek, (phúsis), nature and (phusiké), knowledge of nature) is the science concerned with the discovery and understanding of the fundamental laws which govern matter, energy, space and time. ... The Michelson-Morley experiment, one of the most important and famous experiments in the history of physics, was performed in 1887 by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley at what is now Case Western Reserve University, and is considered by some to be the first strong evidence against the theory of... Look up absolute in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... An inertial reference frame is a reference frame which does not accelerate. ...

There are definite relationships between the relative directions, however. Left and right, forward and backward, and up and down are three complementary pairs orthogonal to each other. If you climb a rope one meter up, you will have moved negative one meter down. Furthermore, you will not have moved left or right at all, nor forward or backward. One must mind the geometry of his environment when using relative direction to express motion, however. For example, if you continue walking forward until you have almost circumnavigated the Earth, you will expend much effort only to move backward slightly. This is because, on Earth, we use a spherical coordinate system wherein the direction vectors depend on position. The word complement (with an e in the second syllable, not to be confused with a different word, compliment with an i) has a number of uses. ... In mathematics, orthogonal is synonymous with perpendicular when used as a simple adjective that is not part of any longer phrase with a standard definition. ... Orders of magnitude (length) 1 E-13 m 1 E-12 m 1 E-11 m 1 E-10 m 1 E-9 m 1 E-8 m 1 E-7 m 1 E-6 m 1 E-5 m 1 E-4 m 1 E-3 m 1 E... In mathematics, −1 is the integer greater than negative two (−2) and less than 0. ... Table of Geometry, from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. ... In physics, motion means a change in the position of a body with respect to time, as measured by a particular observer in a particular frame of reference. ... To circumnavigate a place, such as an island, a continent, or the Earth is to travel all the way around it by boat or ship. ... Earth (IPA: , often referred to as the Earth, Terra, the World or Planet Earth) is the third planet in the solar system in terms of distance from the Sun, and the fifth largest. ... This article describes some of the common coordinate systems that appear in elementary mathematics. ... In mathematics, a unit vector in a normed vector space is a vector (often a spatial vector) whose length is 1. ... Look up position in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The right-hand rule is one common way to relate the three principal directions. (See below to decide which is your right hand.) For many years a fundamental question in physics was whether a left-hand rule would be equivalent. Many natural structures, including our own bodies, follow a certain handedness, but it was widely assumed that the nature herself did not distinguish the two possibilities. This changed with the discovery of CP violation in particle physics. If you magnetize a sample of cobalt-60 atoms so that they spin counterclockwise around some axis, the beta radiation resulting from their nuclear decay will be directed opposite that axis. Since counterclockwise may be defined in terms of up, forward, and right, this experiment unambiguously differentiates left from right using only natural elements: If they were reversed, or the atoms spun clockwise, the radiation would follow the spin axis instead of being opposite to it. The left-handed orientation is shown on the left, and the right-handed on the right. ... In physics, a parity transformation (also called parity inversion) is the simultaneous flip in the sign of all spatial coordinates: A 3×3 matrix representation of P would have determinant equal to –1, and hence cannot reduce to a rotation. ... Galunggung in 1982, showing a combination of natural events. ... In physics, and specifically particle physics, CP violation is a violation of the postulated CP symmetry of the laws of physics. ... Particles explode from the collision point of two relativistic (100 GeV per nucleon) gold ions in the STAR detector of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. ... In physics, magnetism is one of the phenomena by which materials exert an attractive or repulsive force on other materials. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Properties For alternative meanings see atom (disambiguation). ... A clockwise motion is one that proceeds like the clocks hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back to the top. ... A sphere rotating around its axis. ... Beta particles are high-energy electrons emitted by certain types of radioactive nuclei such as potassium-40. ... Radioactive decay is the set of various processes by which unstable atomic nuclei (nuclides) emit subatomic particles. ... Clockwise can refer to: Clockwise and counterclockwise Clockwise (movie) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

This definition of left and right is unwieldy. In practice, the meaning of relative direction words is conveyed through tradition, acculturation, education, and direct reference. The word tradition, comes from the Latin word traditio which means to hand down or to hand over. ... Pocahontas, in England, as Mrs John Rolfe, 1616: engraving after Simon Van de Passe Acculturation is the obtainment of culture by an individual or a group of people. ...

One common definition of up and down uses gravity and the planet Earth as a frame of reference. Since there is a very noticeable force of gravity acting between the Earth and any other object, down is defined as that direction which an object moves in reference to the Earth when the object is left to fall freely. Up is then defined as the opposite direction of down. Another common definition uses a human body, standing upright, as a frame of reference. In that case, up is defined as the direction from feet to head, perpendicular to the surface of the Earth. Gravity is a force of attraction that acts between bodies that have mass. ... Earth (IPA: , often referred to as the Earth, Terra, the World or Planet Earth) is the third planet in the solar system in terms of distance from the Sun, and the fifth largest. ... Free Fall opens with one of the most stunning first paragraphs I have ever, or am ever likely to, read. ...

Forward and backward may be defined by referring to an object or person's motion. Forward is defined as the direction in which the object is moving. Backwards is then defined as the opposite of forward. Alternately, forward may be the direction pointed by the observer's nose, defining backward as the direction from the nose to the sagittal border in the observer's skull. Motion involves change in position, such as this perspective of rapidly leaving Yongsan Station In physics, motion means a continuous change in the position of a body relative to a reference point, as measured by a particular observer in a particular frame of reference. ... Human nose in profile A typical bulbous human nose, here used to support a pair of glasses. ... The parietal bones (os parietale) are bones in the human skull and form, by their union, the sides and roof of the cranium. ... For symbolic or mythic uses of the human skull, see Skull (symbolism). ...

The terms left and right are derived from the fact that some 90% of the population use the hand of the same side of their body for writing and other manual tasks. Through cognate of the word right in the meaning correct or good, the side with the hand most used was defined as the right side. The word left comes from the Old English lyft, meaning weak. This dichotomy can also be seen in the words dextrous and sinister, from the Latin words for right and left. In order to figure out which hand is which you will need a compass and the sun. Face the sun before solar noon and check the compass. The hand on the south side is right. Left is then defined as the opposite of right. Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon) is an early form of the English language that was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century. ... A dichotomy is a division into two non-overlapping or mutually exclusive and jointly exhaustive parts. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ...

In the vast majority of the population, the heart is slightly to the left of the body's centre line and the liver is to the right. Less visibly, the two hemispheres of the brain differ in function. The heart and lungs, from an older edition of Grays Anatomy. ... The liver is the largest internal organ of the human body. ... The human brain as viewed from above, showing the cerebral hemispheres. ... In animals, the brain, or encephalon (Greek for in the head), is the control center of the central nervous system. ...

In nautical usage, the halves of a ship are designated port (left) and starboard (right), relative to a person looking forward (towards the bow of the ship). Port is the nautical term (used on boats and ships) that refers to the left side of a ship, as perceived by a person facing towards the bow (the front of the vessel). ... Starboard is the nautical term (used on boats and ships) that refers to the right side of a vessel as perceived by a person facing towards the bow. ...

Example

See text for explanation.

In this diagram, showing a road with right-hand traffic, the red car is to the left of the blue car. The blue car is, therefore, on the right-hand side. Should the blue car move backward, it would reach the position of the yellow car, causing an accident. For the red car to be where the green car is, it would have to move forward. Image File history File links Left_and_right_cars. ... Image File history File links Left_and_right_cars. ... The references in this article would be clearer with a different and/or consistent style of citation, footnoting or external linking. ...

The lane containing the green and red cars is the left lane, the lane with the yellow and blue cars is the right lane.