You two are simply using the word “math” to mean different things: “working with numbers” (which can seem scary to many, just because most of us aren’t so accustomed to ‘reading’ them the way we do words, and they can summon unpleasant childhood memories of truly difficukt math problems), versus something akin to logical, step-by-step reasoning (in this case involving numbers). Most of us are pretty good with the latter skill overall, but some people will refuse to even try to employ the skill if it happens, in this case, to involve some entity we happen to fear (e.g., numbers).
In that case it wouldn’t matter because, you see, what happens is that more electrons come out in one “orientation” than in the other. You just have to tell them: “count the amounts of the two types of electrons that go out. Those amounts will be significatively different. The electrons that are more abundant are (“left” or “right”; I don’t remember now which one it is).”
From there you can build up definitions until you reach an unambiguous consensus on what is “left” and “right”. And it won’t depend on whether the apparatus is built one way or another – the final result is a different amount of two types of electrons emitted, and knowing which amount is bigger doesn’t depend on a previous knowledge of what is “left” or “right”.
Saying “crystalize [glucose]. Cut a slice of it, with two large parallel surfaces. Place the slice vertically. Shine a beam of light through it. The exit beam will be at an angle, the entry and exit beam won’t form a straight line. Looking at the crystal from the top, the direction towards which the exit beam has turned is called ‘right’” still seems a lot simpler to me, even if it made me have to put pics into words…
Mind you, the notion of being at the stage where we can communicate “parallel” and still can’t communicate “right” or send pics is making my eyes hurt
Also, IIUIC, your left and right are referring to the spin. Electrons don’t twirl…
I would say that I am good at math, but I’m lousy at arithmetic. I have a lot of trouble figuring 15% in my head, and I think the problem is at this step. Fortunately, I have a smart phone. Actually, it had to be pointed out to me that averaging 10% and 10%*2 is the easiest way to get 15% without a calculator or a pencil and paper. It never occurs to me that just because you calculate something one way when you have tools, you might not want to calculate it the same way when you don’t have those tools available.
Here’s a skill I don’t have that I suspect some people do. I’ve heard it said the strongest “trigger” for memories is smelling something you can associate with a memory, like say your Grandmothers apple pie on Thanksgiving day when you were a kid. Smell an apple pie and suddenly you can almost imagine being back there. I tend to agree. I smell that special smell and it almost transports me memory wise to what I associate with that smell.
Now, I have a decent sense of smell (though I can’t detect faint smells). And I ain’t too bad at telling smell A is different from similiar smell B. And fairly regularly I’ll smell something and think "damn, that smells familiar, what does it remind me of? And, often I eventually remember it. So, its not like I have some major physical/mental deficit when it comes to smell.
Except for one thing. I cannot imagine smells. I can hear music in head. I can visualize things and place in my head. But I can’t conjure up a mental simulation of smell.
Yes, it is related to spin. Don’t ask me much more; I read about this a long time ago and I am not in a position to search the matter in depth
Re.: Glucose – You’d be sending them the analytical formula for glucose, I imagine (C6H12O6). This, to begin with, will lead to a synthesis with enanthiomeres. Tell them to separate those enanthiomeres in two? Fine – still no way to say “this one is left and this one is right”.
I can. I don’t think my sense of smell is all that good, but I can certainly remember how things smell. I can call the smells up in my head, the same as I would a visual or auditory memory.
I’m always totally baffled by those “memory tricks” that supposedly make it easier to remember a number - you know, the ones where you’re meant to turn it into a story or narrative. For me, those things are far harder to remember than a series of numbers on its own.
But there is a difference between a smell triggering a memory and being able to imagine it in your mind. If I smell napalm in the morning I get some intense memories. But I can’t imagine the smell in my head. I could use some words to describe the smell but I am not reliving the smell in my head.
Even with, say, dead skunk on the highway? Or bleach? You know, really intense smells?
I’ve had this discussion with people about taste, actually, and while a lot of people in the group couldn’t immediately imagine the taste of apple pie, they could definitely imagine the taste of cough syrup or strong pickles.
Nope. I kinda wanna sorta SAY that I do, but to be honest if I try to imagine a strong smell (either good or bad) I’d say a better description of what I get is an emotional/physical feeling that is related to the smell but not the smell itself.
I thought (based on vague memories of the ambidextrous universe), that you could determine left/right using the charges of the elementry particles, but if we’re matter and we don’t know if they’re matter or antimatter (we can’t tell because we communicate entirely by photons), then almost everything is exactly the same but mirror-image, and you can only tell by looking at interactions of fundamental particles that involve the weak nuclear force (whcih is the only force NOT preserved if you switch +/- and left/right ).
