Where is the first floor?

[Lysander]

You walk into a building, you know you have to go to the first floor.

But do you need to use a lift or stairs to get to the first floor?

 

[Lysander]

First surface, not first floor.

Is the ground floor not a floor?

 

[Lysander]

We're the stupid ones on that score. Ground floor is idiotic, it's the 1st floor of the building.

But it's the first floor up.

 

[Lysander]

If you live in a bungalow, you do not live on the "first" level, you live on the ground level. Or on the street level. There is no second+ floor, hence no reason for it to be called first. First implies there are more.

 

[Lysander]

I hate basement level numbering that is B1, B2, B3, B4 etc. -1, -2, -3 is clearly the better option.

In Harrods they have -7. And they have roads with trucks down there. It's weird.

 

[Lysander]

The zero still exists whether you count it or not, just the cashier would look a bit daft handing over zero mars bars (why is zero plural?).

It would be equally daft if you went from floor 1 to floor -1 hence the existence of floor zero, aka the ground floor.

It's not zero, this is where the confusion arises. It's the ground floor. The floor on the ground. The first floor is the first floor up. It's very logical. The Mars bar analogy is a bad one because you cannot have no Mars bars. But you can enter on the ground floor.

 

[Lysander]

so if the ground floor is the first floor then surely the basement has to be the ground floor because its in the ground and the first floor is first so then the basement is the sub basement but how can you have a sub basement without a normal basement first?

No. Ground floor, lower ground floor, basement, sub-basement.

 

[Lysander]

lower ground floor

how many sub basement do you need before you get to the underground lair?

What number comes between 1 and -1?

What if you have a huge, underground, villainous complex. I really don't have the room for sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-basement on the lift control panel.

Lower ground is for buildings which may have a level below ground which is not a basement, such as if it backs on to a lower ground outer courtyard.

Basement is below ground, any levels below that are purely sub-basement levels and numbered accordingly, such as -1+.

 

[Lysander]

What if the building is a helix?

Then this would be floor H and divided into zones.

 

[Lysander]

Roof
...
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Basement
B+1
B+2
B+3
B+4
B+5
...
Hell

RH
R
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
M
0
LG
-1
-2
-3

 

[Lysander]

You're thinking it wrong:
Walk in to a shop and see a stack of 3 mars bars. Ask for all the mars bars. How many do you get?
3, of course.
Why not 4?
Because the ground isn't a mars bar.

That's ridiculous. That's implying that every thing has an extra thing because it's zero.

 

[Lysander]

Someone has already mentioned it but its comparable to a staircase / ladder. When you step onto a ladder / staircase, you are elevated by one rise, you are therefore on the first rung/step. You wouldn't say you were on the first rung of a ladder whilst you were stood next to it.

The first rung on the ladder is not on the ground is it.

The ground is on the ground. Ergo the ground floor is on the ground floor.

 

[Lysander]

Someone has beaten me to it here, you can see on this detailed plan exactly what the floors should be known as.

Apart from the fact that they're wrong.

 

[Lysander]

Show me your design that shows that they are wrong.

It would be identical except for the ground floor would be labelled as ground floor and the floors upwards of that numbered 1+ accordingly.

 

[Lysander]

It's funny how if you are sky diving, you hit the ground, not the first floor.

If you jump off a building, you hit the ground, not the first floor .

If you jump off outside the window from the first floor, you hit the ground.

If you jump off a floor inside the building, you hit the first floor?

WHAT ON EARTH? What kind of logic is that? You are on the first floor just because you step inside a door?

HSBC in Hong Kong has no door as such on the ground floor, the entire ground floor is wide open. Just because you are inside the footprint of the building means you are now on the 1st floor? What if I am 1 foot in it? Am I both on the ground and 1st floor?

Indeed. A door and walls do not created floors. Floors do.

 

[Lysander]

What do you call a building with no floors?

It would still be a building, it would have no floors.

If you had a building which was secured in an antigravity chamber, it could have no floors. You would just walk in the door into nothing.

 

[Lysander]

does nothing exist?

No.

Before the universe existed there was literally nothing. There was no-one around to even recognise it as nothing, it was just nothing.

This is taking into considersation the idea that the flow of the universe might not be cyclical, but for the purposes of your question I'm ignoring that concept.

 

[Lysander]

Everyone agrees that the floor at street level is a floor. It's a surface laid on the foundations. It's a floor.

Now many people call it a ground floor because it's at ground level. However, since it's a floor it's the FIRST floor of the building.

It's the floor on the ground.

The first floor is the first floor above ground.

 

[Lysander]

If you live in a bungalow and fall out of bed.....where do you land? THE FLOOR

Yes, the floor that's on the ground.

Seriously, it's not hard.

 

[Lysander]

Would it be identical, or would their be better than yours and you don't want to get shown up?

There is no point in my creating a diagram to do something I have just as easily explained.