Why do you use your left hand

[ImanCarrot]

To pick up small objects when you're right handed, or is it just me?

I was stamping about 50 stainless steel jigs with part numbers and had to pick out and insert the various numbers and letters into the stamp holder then batter this tool with a lump hammer to stamp the parts.

In my boredom, I noticed that even whilst I'm right handed- to pick the fiddly letters etc out I used my left hand... why is this so? also! I noticed that if I'm picking out some small screws from my junk bucket of nuts n bolts, again I use my left hand.

Is it just me or is there an explanation?

[Al_The_Man]

Ambidexterity

[JROM]

Your right hand was busy doing something else?

[Rekd]

Ruh roh, raggy!

[DR-Motion]

"Ambidexterity"

I'd give my right arm to be ambidexterous.

[lerman]

The other hand is for holding.

Hold the part in the left hand; hold the screwdriver in the right hand.

It is not just you.

Ken

[Jerry Dots]

I eat and write left handed. I throw, hammer, twist a screwdriver right handed. I can drive a nail with either hand....the left is not as strong as the right so I normally use the right. Being able to drive a nail with either comes in very handy when you are in a corner. Start a nut on a bolt with either. My oldest son is the same way...the other son is strictly right handed.

[martinw]

Originally Posted by ImanCarrot Is it just me or is there an explanation?

Dear ImanCarrot,

I think you were probably "wired-up" in the womb with a most useful facility that most right-handers do not have. Any task that requires a modicum of strength or precision is done with the right side of my body, be it arm, foot, hand or finger. The only exception is the ability to change gears in my van with my left hand, and that seems natural. Driving in Europe, right handed gear shifts feel distinctly un-natural. I suppose that means that half my body is pretty much under-utilised, and is only used for gripping.

Here is another strange thing... If you look at an object about thirty feet away, and point at it with both eyes open with your finger, and subsequently close each eye in turn, it is my left eye that is in line between my finger and the object, even though I am absolutely right handed. The right eye comes nowhere close.

Curious stuff really...

Best wishes,

Martin

[High Seas]

holds the fish while I fillet it

Keep the right brain juice moving -- womb wiring is one thought - training and development another...

I have spent several (over 5) years back and forth across the "lanes" - intentionally. My first observation on moving to the "wrong side of the road" - a bit more concentration seemed to be required - and I felt like I was a better driver for it.
Since then, they seem to be equal skills - adaptation/acomodation I guess. The pathway between the left and right hemispheres can be increased through similar training activities (corpus colusum I believe its called). There is a book left brain/right comes to mind and, The Brain Book by Russel Peters

Careful, how your brain acts and responds (left/right) it will change how you think... Maybe thats why they say, "Don't take it out and play with it!"

[martinw]

[QUOTE=High Seas;351934]holds the fish while I fillet it

QUOTE]

Dear High Seas,

I would never even consider holding a slippery fish with my right hand while trying to gut it with a sharp knife in my left one. It seems like I would be asking for a whole shed-load of trouble.

A whole cerebral hemisphere under-utilised maybe, but I'm not going to be able to comprehensively re-wire it now.

By the way,

Safe Passage...

Best wishes,

Martin

[bookwurm99]

i am a lefty and i do almost every thing left handed except for tools that are right handed only. i use right hand for mouse but when i use an axe or sledge hammer i can do either just as well. i heard something awhile ago: lefty's right hands are stronger and more capable than righty's lefts. i think it is better to be either a lefty or ambidextrous.

[martinw]

Originally Posted by bookwurm99 i am a lefty and i do almost every thing left handed except for tools that are right handed only. i use right hand for mouse but when i use an axe or sledge hammer i can do either just as well. i heard something awhile ago: lefty's right hands are stronger and more capable than righty's lefts. i think it is better to be either a lefty or ambidextrous.

Dear bookworm99,

That is probably true about the strength of the right side of left-handed people being far greater than the left side of right-handed people. I think also that left-handed people are, by and large, more intelligent.

But that opinion comes from someone who is merely right-handed...

Best wishes,

Martin