Questions for non-Americans

[Milquetoast]

Ok, there are 3 questions that I just haven't been able to figure out for sure. Can any of you fine folks from other lands answer these questions? I'll start in order of difficulty...

1. Here in the US, the toilet bowl water runs counter-clockwise down the drain. Does it really turn the other way in, say, Australia?

2. In England, the steering wheel is on the right side of the car, that part is crystal clear to me. But, are the pedals backwards too? Is the gas pedal on your right foot or your left?

3. I have heard that Asian languages have no real alphabet, just a different written symbol for each word. Even if your language had only 10,000 words, your keyboard would be gigantic! What does a chinese keyboard look like?

 

[marcusgunby]

The answers i know are different hemispheres do have the water spiralling the opposite way.

The pedals are the same-gas on the right brake in the middle and clutch on the left(clutch in a car i know its weird for the Americans;) )

3 i have no idea.

 

[BunduBasher]

1. theoretically the water is supposed to drain the other way, but this is not always so ! However hurricanes do rotate one way, and cyclones (the Southern Hemisphere name for the same thing !) rotate in the opposite direction.

2. Cars are identical except for having to sit on the other seat. The biggest distraction is having the gear lever in the wrong hand, I kept trying to put my left hand through the door, or grab the door handle when I wanted to shift gear - looked pretty spastic :scream:

 

[a454elk]

1. I don't care to see how it goes down, just that it DOES go down.
2. Ditto
3. Looks like a pile of noodles, no punn intended!
Elk

 

[Milquetoast]

OK, thanks gentlemen. That #3 is a the real puzzler for me, maybe this BUMP will help.

 

[Person8]

This may shed some light on it:

http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/dis_v1/disv1.asp?DID=dis26d&File=S24B6_c3.asp

Larry

 

[Milquetoast]

Bzzz-gerk, does not compute, thanks though person8. Can anyone explain in english? There must be some folks from Japan or Taiwan or something that can help me understand this. I don't want to know how Asian people spell english on a computer, I want to know how Asian languages are written with only a relatively small amount of keys on a keyboard. Wierd, isn't it? Thanks!

 

[fatty_k]

A question FOR Americans...

Do Canadians really live in igloo's and drive dog sleds to school and work?

The answer: NO!

 

[KDX MAN]

The Answer You've All Been Waiting For

In chinese and similar languages, every character has a word in English letters that is spelt the way the character is pronunciated. These words may also have tone marks over certain letters to indicate the tone of the word. Chinese people just type in this language or have special programs that convert that language into on-screen characters.

;)

 

[Person8]

Well.... the way I read that link I posted is that if you type a certain sequence of characters on an 'English' keyboard, for example 6-E-B-Y, you will get a certain Chinese character. Doesn't sound like a very efficient way to do it, and I'm sure there has to be other methods.

Larry

 

[KWJams]

Get this!

In the land down under---their scroll bars are even on the wrong side.
:confused:

 

[KDX MAN]

Person8 - nah, you type it as it sounds in chinese and a box with possible characters that can corrispond to what you've typed and you select one.

 

[Person8]

That does sound a bit easier.

Larry

 

[BSWIFT]

Re: Get this!

Originally posted by KWJams
In the land down under---their scroll bars are even on the wrong side.
:confused:

It starts at the bottom and goes up!:p ;)

 

[Jeff Gilbert]

The toilet bowel in my house spiraled up once and I live in Texas:confused:

 

[Milquetoast]

You type it like it sounds, and possible matches come up to choose from? Hmmm, now that makes sense. I never could figure out how they did that.

Gas Pedal on the right even in the backwards cars.

Toilet flushes the other way down under.

Thanks everyone, my mind is at ease now. -Milquetoast

 

[Skid Jackson]

Reletive to #1.
This is caused by what is called the" Cariolis Force" (sp) The C force is created from the friction of the surface of the earth as it rotates and reacts with the atmosphere. (I might be off a bit here but it's something like that!! I think it also explains some of our weather patterns)

 

[BunduBasher]

Very good skid, I suddenly remember this from a geography lesson:

Coriolus Effect

The deflective effect of Earth's rotation on all free-moving objects, including the atmosphere and oceans. Deflection is to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere.

1. Object moving north (or south) in N. hemisphere tends to deflect to the right; in S. hemisphere tends to deflect left
2. Why? It results from fact that at higher latitudes, any point on surface of Earth is traveling slower due to less circumference in direction Earth is rotating (WestàEast)
a. E.g., circumference at equator is 24,000 miles, so air mass at surface is traveling at 24,000 miles/day
b. At 45º N latitude, an object is traveling a circumference of Cosin 45º = 0.707, or ca. 17,000 miles/day
c. Thus, for example, south-moving air mass traveling at, say, 17,000 miles/day at 45º N. latitude encounters Earth underneath it rotating increasingly rapidly (westàeast) at lower latitudes, and “deflects right”
1. Right-deflected air masses in northern latitudes (ca. 0-30º N) cause “northeast trade winds”; southeast trade winds in corresponding S. latitudes
2. Prevailing (midlatitude) westerlies also result from Coriolus effect, but in this case from northward moving air masses within the “Ferrel Cell” (30-60º N. latitudes), again following “deflect right” rule

 

[Jeff Gilbert]

Originally posted by BunduBasher

You're making my head hurt.:ugg:

 

[Danman]

#1 was a question asked by Bart on the Simpsons. He made a bunch of phone calls to Austrila. Did you not see that episode. Funny stuff.

 

[Person8]

I wonder if the Coriolus effect has anything to do with the way that someone lost in the wilderness always ends up walking in a giant circle?

Larry

 

[BunduBasher]

someone lost in the wilderness always ends up walking in a giant circle?

From what I understand from my boy scout days - it is because one leg is shorter than the other ! No, seriously :eek:

(Heck, I am starting to sound like that guy from Cheers :confused: )