Random Fact!

The Spiral stairs at one of the London Underground stations (can't remember which but can remember there are 175 steps) goes anticlockwise from the bottom to top
 
The width between rails on a standard guage railway (ie ours!) is based on an ancient Roman measurement for the ruts in roads that chariots used. Effectively, the width of our trains is dictated by the width of horses backsides!
 
DampCat said:
If you mean the one at/near Covent Garden it's 100% clockwise.
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If it was the one at Covent Garden:
From top to bottom it is clockwise yes.
From bottom to top it is not. Therefore it spirals upwards anti-clockwise not clockwise
 
Problem number one with the spiral staircase theory is that it rather short-sightedly assumes that attackers would be coming from below.

Problem number two is that if defenders are retreating *up* a staircase, chances are they're going to somewhere like parapets, ramparts or belltowers. In other words, somewhere high up and inescapable.

The sensible approach for any attackers in this situation is to set up camp at the open space at the bottom of the staircase with pointy things, and wait until the defenders either starve, jump to a plummety death - or attack in conveniently-funnelled one-at-a-time formation.

Spot the Total War player.
 
dangerstat said:
Wrong. Any event with a probaility greater than zero with respect to time yes. Otherwise NO!
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Two things:

- there's no such thing as a probability of zero
- if it were possible for something to have a probability of zero, the probability would still become 1 infinitely far down the timeline.
 
DampCat said:
That came up following the conversation in the office.

Apparently the reason the continent drives on the right, is because Napoleon was Left Handed and forced his troops to march on the right. Not sure how true that is!
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Nope. AFAIK:

Soldiers marched on the left for two reasons. Courtesy and protection: you'd want to face your enemy on the right so you can draw your sword. If you marched on the right, your scabbard would 'bump' into people passing you on the left. Furthermore, try mounting a horse from the right with a sword on.

This was passed off onto Aristocracy, who always processed on the left, forcing peasants to walk alongside. However, round about the time heads started rolling in France, the nobility wanted to 'blend in' so they began walking on the right. Napolean then spread this right-ism around the globe. Those that resisted France generally kept the left, thanks also to the Empire.

Parallels of this are seen in Japan (replacing Samurai in the above).
 
sara said:
Yes but I'm fairly sure the Underground was built after we finished fighting with swords...
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Most definitely but makes the random fact incorrect.

I'm fairly sure Urquhart castle was around while still using swords and that is anticlockwise (unless it has been rebuilt since using guns rather than swords)

-Edit:
Incidentally, if you are visiting this castle check out the upward spiral staircase in the Grant tower. Most spiral staircases in medieval castles rose clockwise to prevent a right-handed swordsman fighting his way up, but the Grant family were mainly left-handed so they built their staircase with an anti-clockwise spiral. The spiral from the lower storage room rises clockwise as the Grants themselves would never have had to defend that stairwell.
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Smit said:
Also Urquhart Castle in Loch Ness staircase is anti-clockwise going upwards too :p
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Wow, I went there this summer! Thing that struck me though was that the Scots were so sure that they'd capitulate the castle at some point, they built it anti-clockwise so that they'd have a better chance of re-taking it when the English got bored :p.
 
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