The sundial, the screwdriver and the ipod

I've always wondered what makes the ipod so intuitive to use. It's down to the click-wheel thing isn't it? Where you can turn the volume up by motioning your thumb in a clockwise fashion and volume down in the counter-clockwise direction. Use it to scroll through your list of songs, files, videos etc. Use it to tune your radio, just like you would in one of the older radios where you physically have to turn a dial just that milimeter more to get the station you want. But why clockwise (and not anti-clockwise) for higher volume? Why clockwise for "down" motion? (Click here for more)

The term "clockwise" seems to suggest that it was the measure of time that gave birth to the rotational direction of "clockwise". Suddenly, the toilet bowl flush test came to mind. It's quite commonly known (especially if you've watched THAT episode of The Simpsons) that northern hemisphere toilet bowls will flush in the clockwise direction and the southern hemisphere will flush in anti-clockwise. Could the clockwise direction then be a legacy of the northern hemisphere?

After digging around, I seem to be right. According to Wikipedia, clocks were first built in the northern hemisphere, and they were made to work like sundials. That is why clockwise is as you know it. Why didn't the anti-clockwise direction prevailed as THE standard way clocks tick? Is this just another example of the north-south divide where northern standards are THE standard? Or is it just something which just came stuck just because it's out in the market first, like the QWERTY keyboard.

Well, turned out I was just partially right. The toilet bowl flush direction is a myth! Check this out.

Categories:

• tech
• ipod