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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Left-handed Plath Coutinho Sextant
From: Jackson McDonald
Date: 2017 Feb 6, 02:21 +0000
From: Jackson McDonald
Date: 2017 Feb 6, 02:21 +0000
Frank,
Thanks for enhancing my vocabulary: "chirality."
I had to look it up.
If it's backwards then it's a right-handed sextant. The normal sextant is clearly designed for a left-handed user. At some point in the 19th century, via spontaneous symmetry breaking, the standard design became frozen with the minority chirality. It's the revenge of the southpaw navigator!
Frank Reed
PS: Here's an off-topic image of left and right handed tetrahedral molecules --which I can't resist given today's topics of discussion about handedness and tetrahedral points. Meanwhile, at the very instant I was composing this message about Gago Coutinho, a friend texted and asked if I was watching Gaga. No relation that I am aware of.
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