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Two-dimensional rotation can occur in two possible directions or senses of rotation.Clockwise motion (abbreviated CW) proceeds in the same direction as a clock's hands relative to the observer: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back up to the top.
A helix is a curved line formed by a point rotating around a center while the center moves up or down the z-axis. Helices are either right or left handed with curled fingers giving the direction of rotation and thumb giving the direction of advance along the z-axis. The threads of a screw are helical and therefore screws can be right- or left ...
This definition is independent of the object's direction of rotation about its axis. This implies that an object's direction of rotation, when viewed from above its north pole, may be either clockwise or counterclockwise. The direction of rotation exhibited by most objects in the solar system (including Sun and Earth) is counterclockwise.
When using this convention, left- or right-handedness is determined by pointing one's left or right thumb away from the source, in the same direction that the wave is propagating, and matching the curling of one's fingers to the direction of the temporal rotation of the field at a given point in space.
The anticlockwise or counterclockwise direction. Widdershins (sometimes withershins, widershins or widderschynnes) is a term meaning to go counter-clockwise, anti-clockwise, or lefthandwise, or to walk around an object by always keeping it on the left.
The terms are derived from the Latin words for "left" (sinister) and "right" (dexter). Other disciplines use different terms (such as dextro-and laevo-rotary in chemistry, or clockwise and anticlockwise in physics) or simply use left and right (as in anatomy). Relative direction and chirality are distinct concepts.
The figure illustrates a ball tossed from 12:00 o'clock toward the center of a counter-clockwise rotating carousel. On the left, the ball is seen by a stationary observer above the carousel, and the ball travels in a straight line to the center, while the ball-thrower rotates counter-clockwise with the carousel.
Rotation can have a sign (as in the sign of an angle): a clockwise rotation is a negative magnitude so a counterclockwise turn has a positive magnitude. A rotation is different from other types of motions: translations , which have no fixed points, and (hyperplane) reflections , each of them having an entire ( n − 1) -dimensional flat of ...