Which is which?
Material
A rubber glove, one that fits both hands.
To Do and Notice
One change at a time.
Put the glove on a table. With the fingers pointing away from you.
Hold out both of your hands with the fingers pointing away from you, and the palms down
Which hand would slide into the glove?
(If the thumb of the glove is on the left the glove will fit your
right hand.)
Keep the fingers of the glove pointing away from
you and turn it over.
Now which hand would fit into the glove. (The other hand,
left.)
Go back to the original position of the glove.
Now keep the thumb on the same side and turn the glove over so that
the fingers point toward you.
Which hand would slide into the glove, (palm down. The left.)
Go back to the original position of the glove.
Turn the glove inside out. Now the fingers point toward you.
Which hand would slide into the glove? (The left.)
All of the above changes turn a right glove into a left one.
Two changes at a time
Now try two changes at the same time.
Go back to the original position of the glove.
Turn it over so that the fingers point away from you.
Then turn it over again so that the fingers point toward
you.
Which hand will fit into the glove? (palm down, the right.)
Try all other pairs of changes choosing from the following three: flip over keeping the fingers away, flip over fingers, turn inside out.
Notice that any two changes keep a right hand a right hand.
Three changes at a time
Go back to the original position of the glove.
Turn the glove over keeping the fingers away from
you.
Turn the glove over so that the fingers point toward you.
Turn the glove inside out.
Notice that the right hand glove becomes a left hand glove.
Now that you can tell a right glove from a left one, try the mirror activities, Right-left, 3 mirrors.
An Activity by Paul Doherty developed in collaboration with Pat Murphy.
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Scientific Explorations with Paul Doherty |
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1 Feb 2000 |