Left handedness

[dodgymanc]

I am laft handed, and just wondering what makes a person left handed? And why?

[dodgymanc]

No-ones mademe do anything with my right hand, except I do eat right handed (with the fork in my left) bu i write and play football with my left side.

[Pickle]

Some people say it is genetic. But I can prove them wrong! My brothers are identical twins, so they are genetically exactly the same. One is right handed and the other is left handed. I've asked other twins this and quite often you'll find that one twin is left handed. So maybe you're left handed because you are, or were meant to be, a twin.

[xyzzyplugh]

It's to do with chirality Q.V. http://www.nurseminerva.co.uk/handedne.htm

[Gef]

xyzzy, it has nothing (and everything) to do with chirality. Chirality simply means 'handedness' - our hands are non-superimposible mirror images. I am left handed for writing, left footed for football etc, etc. However, I use a knife and fork 'normally" - perhaps I was taught this by my parents - use the mouse with my right hand and also smoke my cigars with my right hand. When I drink I am ambidextrous and I have never had a problem with scissors, can-openers etc. although I use them left-handed.

[xyzzyplugh]

Gef, you're not seeing beyond your nose in chirality, which although meaning 'handedness' is merely a device to label a phenomenon. Chirality is not just your hands. Google knows. Chirality concerns the 'handedness' of the whole universe; from mighty spiral galaxies to tiny little snails and microscopically too. e.g. Snails with right handed spirals in their shells are very rare. Read some more as it is a fascinating branch of the loop which concerns divine numbers and sequences such as Phi and Fibonacci. Simply, book up Gef. :-)

[Gef]

xyzzy, the word chirality comes from the Greek word for hand (cheir). It was originally used by chemists to describe molecules which exist as non-superimposable mirror images of each other. Nothing more, nothing less. However, I agree with you that it is fascinating that one form (right handed people, left handed snail shells, right handed glucose molecules etc.) should predominate in our Universe.