Trivia about left handers
- Setting aside the as yet unexplained scientific aspect of their existence and origin, left-handed people are individuals whose perception of the direction in which things rotate is reversed. This phenomenon is often called the mirror effect.
- For the left-handed person, the natural direction of rotation is counterclockwise; clockwise corresponds to the natural direction of rotation for right-handed people.
- Generally, what percentage of the population is left-handed:
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Quick answer: from 11% to 13% , depending on the criteria used.
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Statistical percentage that tends to increase slowly as society becomes more accepting with respect to left-handed people.
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In the case of young people aged 10-20, more males (14%) and women (12%) are left-handed than in the case of older people (6% for both genders).
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More men (13.5%) are left-handed than women (10%).
- In 1963, Bob Charles became the first left-handed golfer to win the British Open golf tournament.
- Since Jimi Hendrix could not afford to buy a left-handed guitar (too expensive) when he was just starting out, he learned to play a right-handed guitar, upside down.
- Kermit, the famous frog, who made his first appearance in 1957, was left-handed, as was his creator, Jim Henson.
- The whirlpool created when you empty your bath spins clockwise in the northern hemisphere of the planet and counterclockwise in the southern hemisphere.
- Hockey player Wayne Cashman (left-handed) has always claimed that the key to success in a fight is to get in the first punch and that if you lead with your left you have a distinct advantage when your opponent protects himself with his right.
- The spiral that forms the DNA chain that contains all of an individual’s genetic material turns clockwise.
- The first left-handed president of the United States, James A. Garfield, was also ambidextrous and enjoyed dazzling people by writing in Latin with one hand and Greek with the other.
- The three candidates who ran in the 1992 U.S. presidential election were all left-handed: Bill Clinton, Ross Perot and George Bush.
- All races that take place on an oval track, including those for the Olympics and the world championships, are run counterclockwise. Note: the same also applies to horse races. Why???
- When he was young, left-handed painter Pablo Picasso was so obsessed with painting that he learned to paint before he could talk.
- The direction in which the hands of a watch turn was initially determined by the rotation of the sun (from left to right), so that the rotation indicated on the first sundials would be the same. Needless to say, this also corresponds to the way in which right-handed people perceive rotation.
- Left-hander Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, was painted by his contemporaries astride a horse, holding a telescope to his left eye.
- Left-handed painter, Michelangelo, painted his famous David and Goliath with David holding his sling in his left hand.
- In the case of left-handed people, the left side is not necessarily dominant. In fact, in the case of 43% of left-handed people, their dominant eye is the right eye and only 45% of left-handers will kick a ball with their left foot. On the other hand, 95% of right-handed people also kick with the right foot.
- Another left-hander, composer Sergei Rachmaninoff had the greatest reach ever measured when it came to playing the piano. With his left hand, he could reach 12 white keys, which represents an octave and a half.
- Another famous left-hander, Leonardo da Vinci, wrote all of his personal notes from right to left, forcing those who read them to use a mirror.
- Did you know that left-handers have chosen a day to celebrate their left-handedness each year? Yes: August 13. A large number of left-handers got together from August 13-15, 1999 in the suburbs of Detroit.
- Yashica was the first company to introduce a camera for lefthanders: the Samurai Z-L.
- The percentage of left-handed pitchers in American major league baseball is much higher than the percentage of left-handers found in the general population.
- The word ‘ambidextrous’, used to designate someone who can use both hands equally, contains the root dexter which means the right hand in Latin and implies that an ambidextrous person has two right hands.
- Anthropologists have been able to determine that there were left-handed people over 1.4 million years ago, based on tools made in those times.
- When left-handers do manage to find tools, household articles or sports equipment designed for them, they generally have to pay more $$$ to purchase them.
- A study of the human fetus, using ultrasound technology, has revealed than 8% of all fetuses suck their suck while in utero. 92% of those fetuses suck their right thumb, while 8% such their left. In almost all cases, this tendency is confirmed at birth.
- In the state of West Virginia, there’s a town called Left Hand. Is everyone living there left-handed?
- Studies tend to indicate that two right-handed parents have a 10% chance of having a left-handed child. The percentage is slightly higher if one of the parents is left-handed. If both parents are left-handed, the percentage rises to about 40%, even though no genetic link for left-handedness has been discovered yet.
- The Scottish Kerr clan took its name from the word keir which means left in Gaelic and several of their castles have spiral stairs which rise counterclockwise. This made it easier for a left-handed person to defend with a sword.
- The largest organization for left-handers is Left-Handers International, with more than 50,000 members in a dozen countries.
- Queen Victoria, a famous left-hander who became ambidextrous, holds the absolute record for the longest reign in the British Empire: 63 years.
- In ancient Japan, a man could ask for a divorce if he discovered that his wife was left-handed.
