# Is it possible for humans to walk in a straight line? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 6, 2011, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839 "2011-10-06T23:44:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kombatminipig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5ac83/32.png) [@kombatminipig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kombatminipig)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2011, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839/21 "2011-10-07T14:25:25Z")
I’ve actually done pretty much your experiment, and I’m surprised that few others have: I’ve tried snowboarding down a mountain in complete white-out (visibility down to about 2m). How bad was it? I didn’t have enough sensory input to even keep myself standing, much less hold a course. Only gravity made sure I was even moving down the hull. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2011, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839/22 "2011-10-07T14:32:30Z")
> [@kombatminipig](#): > > Only gravity made sure I was even moving down the **hull**. Lucky you didn’t face plant. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2011, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839/23 "2011-10-07T14:43:00Z")
Would this help at all: Take off your shirt and tear it into strips/threads and make as long a continuous rope/line as possible. Maybe a good 20-30 feet. The longer the better. Now hold the end of it and set out walking backwards while keeping an eye on the line. Keep the line as straight as possible while you walk. Any arc to your walking would be shown as a bend in the line. When you want to rest just set the line down. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839/24 "2011-10-08T02:37:46Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > Would this help at all: > > Take off your shirt and tear it into strips/threads and make as long a continuous rope/line as possible. Maybe a good 20-30 feet. The longer the better. Now hold the end of it and set out walking backwards while keeping an eye on the line. Keep the line as straight as possible while you walk. Any arc to your walking would be shown as a bend in the line. When you want to rest just set the line down. Dragging something along behind you as you walked backwards would be a simple, elegant solution to the problem… but it kinda gets around the point of my hypothetical by “cheating.” But honestly it’s a great idea. Seems like without some sort of aid you’d probably be doomed, according to some of the other people’s stories. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2011, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839/25 "2011-10-08T03:28:44Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > oh man… that’s a terrible repercussion of my constraints that I hadn’t considered. I guess you could take your shirt off and leave it “pointing” in the direction you were headed by stretching it out in front of you… but that kind of breaks the rules of not “leaving a trail.” I believe the traditional answer is to leave your shoes pointing in the direction of your intended travel. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839/26 "2011-10-13T06:27:03Z")
(Someone stop me if this is too big a hijack.) Now consider navigating in 3 dimensions in your Great White Dome. This is what happens if you get caught in a fog in your airplane. Short of watching the instruments, you have no orientation. You don’t even have reliable gravity to know which way is up or down. Y’know how, when you drive a car and turn a corner, you get pushed sideways toward the outside of the turn? Well, exactly the same happens in an airplane. Only worse: Depending on the details of your turn, you could just as well get pushed towards the outside of the turn (this is called a slipping turn), or towards the _inside_ of the turn (this is called a skidding turn)! Or, in a properly coordinated turn, you don’t get pushed either way. And without reference to external landmarks nor instruments, you really have no way to know what your plane is doing. You could perfectly well be in a spiraling descent, yet think you are flying perfectly straight and level. When you go splat, then you find out. (ETA: On second thought, now I’m not entirely sure if I have “slipping” vs. “skidding” right or backwards. Anybody?) ---
**Author:** ![mac\_bolan00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@mac\_bolan00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mac_bolan00)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839/27 "2011-10-13T06:32:40Z")
you have float-type level markers and compasses that only momentarily go askew due to turning and deceleration. ---
**Author:** ![kombatminipig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5ac83/32.png) [@kombatminipig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kombatminipig)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839/28 "2011-10-13T08:45:16Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Lucky you didn’t face plant. Who says I didn’t? =) ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839/29 "2011-10-13T12:47:05Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > If you had string and something reasonably throwable, you’d be fine. > > For example, if you had a t-shirt and a baseball, throw the baseball in some random direction, unravel enough of the shirt to have a string that stretches to where the ball landed, knotted so that it won’t unravel any more, but still connected to the shirt. Leave the shirt at your starting point and walk to the ball, then throw the ball again, away from the shirt. Real the shirt in to your current position, and go fetch the ball again. You don’t even really need the string. Just throw the object in a random direction. Now walk straight towards it until half a step before you reach it. Pick it up and throw it in the direction you’re facing. Repeat steps 2 and 3. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839/30 "2011-10-13T13:24:25Z")
> [@kombatminipig](#): > > I’ve actually done pretty much your experiment, and I’m surprised that few others have: I’ve tried snowboarding down a mountain in complete white-out (visibility down to about 2m). > > How bad was it? I didn’t have enough sensory input to even keep myself standing, much less hold a course. Only gravity made sure I was even moving down the hull. I’ve skied in similar conditions, and you’re right - it’s surprisingly difficult even to stay on your feet with no visual clues as to your orientation. The most unnerving occasion was in a “ground blizzard” (blowing snow) which was moving in the same direction as I was, only faster. Looking down, I could make out just enough detail to see that the snow was moving past me forwards, as if I were moving backwards, when my other senses told me that I was going forwards. Result - instant disorientation and, yep, faceplant. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839/31 "2011-10-13T15:33:27Z")
> [@mac\_bolan00](#): > > it’ll be a lot more interesting if you were both blindfolded and wearing ear covers. that’s considering all the facts and cites mentioned here. This was just done on Mythbusters last night, with the blindfold and ear covers. They did a walking test, swimming test and driving test. The answer is a big fat no, you can not walk, swim or drive in a straight line. Since the OP is basically the same thing I would think that while you might reach an edge, if you had to walk straight then no, you couldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839/32 "2011-10-13T16:54:57Z")
> [@Edward\_The\_Head](#): > > This was just done on Mythbusters last night, with the blindfold and ear covers. They did a walking test, swimming test and driving test. The answer is a big fat no, you can not walk, swim or drive in a straight line. Since the OP is basically the same thing I would think that while you might reach an edge, if you had to walk straight then no, you couldn’t. And Jamie and Adam’s fails were spectacular to say the least - they curved and corkscrewed wildly when both walking and swiming, and veered off the runway in their golf cart during the driving test The only test they (well Jamie) did well in was the partial-vision obstructed walk in the woods (i.e. ‘Bucket-head’), and only because Jamie used a very methodical technique for navigating around obstructions and re-orientating himself. That said, I still found those orientation segments a lot more interesting than the yet-another-generic ‘Build-Team blows up cars with explosive crashes’ ones ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839/33 "2011-10-13T17:57:29Z")
Yup…saw the same Mythbusters last night, they even referenced an experiment where people wore buckets on their head while trying to walk in straight lines in Antarctica. That is probably the closest comparison to the OP’s scenario. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839/34 "2011-10-13T19:30:19Z")
> [@SirRay](#): > > And Jamie and Adam’s fails were spectacular to say the least - they curved and corkscrewed wildly when both walking and swiming, and veered off the runway in their golf cart during the driving test It seemed odd to me on the first test that, even though you could see a breeze affecting the grass around them, they didn’t use it to steer themselves in the slightest. I wonder if they didn’t think about it when they were walking, or if their senses were telling them that the wind was changing, and they couldn’t help themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2011, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839/35 "2011-10-14T00:34:13Z")
> [@mac\_bolan00](#): > > it’ll be a lot more interesting if you were both blindfolded … > . During testing for a nasty motor control medical thingie I had, the Dr. blindfolded me and had me march in place for–I think–60 sec. When she let me see, I had re-oriented 45deg. Surprised the heck out of me; I hadn’t had the slightest sense of it. She said that was a correct and healthy sign. So what’s all this about an urban myth? ---
**Author:** ![mac\_bolan00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@mac\_bolan00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mac_bolan00)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2011, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839/36 "2011-10-14T02:43:12Z")
i think the best way to experiment is a having a blindfolded, ear-muffed man walk several meters a long a level surface. there should be two people walking quietly beside him ready to catch him if he falls. ---
**Author:** ![Yeticus\_Rex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a698b9/32.png) [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2011, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839/37 "2011-10-14T03:37:39Z")
Mythbusters did some trials on a runway with blindfolds and earmuffs with the other partner following/marking their trail. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2011, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839/38 "2011-10-14T16:52:05Z")
> [@Yeticus\_Rex](#): > > Mythbusters did some trials on a runway with blindfolds and earmuffs with the other partner following/marking their trail. Actually the runway was for the driving (golf cart) test - walking was done in a field (which was a bit odd, as it was a grassy field, and while mostly level, probably had some bumps and dips in it - walking along the relatively smooth runway would have been better (unless the concrete slab joints could be readily felt by the walker, thereby acting as a guide). None-the-less, this Mythbusters episode did in fact address the OP’s question very well, and the answer is NO (as confirmed as anything can be on Mythbusters with a sample size of…2 - they should have at least gotten the build team, and maybe some students from the local schools - which they have done before - e.g. the Archimedes Mirror ‘death ray’ againt a wood-ship invasion - and with a quick montage showed us that a large sample of people can’t walk straight blindfolded) ---
**Author:** ![abel29a](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@abel29a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abel29a)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839/39 "2011-10-14T17:49:57Z")
Unless forbidden by the OPs rules - the old adage, always carry a big stick would probably help. When I did my army tour, during foggy weather, we’d practice using long (1,5-2m) long sticks, keeping them horizontal in the line of travel in one hand. Due to the inertia of the stick, if you started to veer of a straight course, you’d see the end of the stick in front of you lag behind, and you could compensate for this. Works surprisingly well in near-zero sight enviroments (as in fog), so I would think it should work in this dome as well. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2011, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839/40 "2011-10-14T21:42:00Z")
I personally list severely to the right when I walk, to the point that I routinely have to tell people that I must walk on _their_ right to avoid veering into them if we are walking to together. I believe this is because I have very poor vision in my left eye (although it is completely corrected with glasses) and my brain keeps trying to avoid potential hazards on that side. I never thought about the problems this might cause in a survival situation, only about the many walls, plants and people that I have walked into on the right. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-for-humans-to-walk-in-a-straight-line/598839.md?page=3)