The act of driving
Discussion
A weird thought I had last night - when using a manual car, to make it move, you lift the clutch pedal at the same time as depressing the throttle pedal (yes I realise variations in technique exist). And that got me thinking. Outside of the vehicular world I could not think of anything else that requires two (almost opposing) actions to be carried out at the same time to make something move/go. For example, when you want to wash some clothes in your washing machine, you turn the dial and press start, not at the same time. You don't then have to move a lever to inject water at the right time as spooling up the drum.
Rat_Fink_67 said:
Some reach style forklifts require you to put your left foot on the deadman switch, push the accelerator with your right, and keep your finger on the travel direction switch to drive them.
That's the sort of thing I mean - in the above examples if you don't do one of the things, whatever you are doing will still work (apart from drumming? - don't know enough to comment!). If you don't do the above - the forklift doesn't move. Old British bikes had the clutch on the left handlebar and the front brake on the right like modern ones, but the rear brake pedal was on the left and the gearchange on the right. So to brake you coordinated right hand and left foot, to change gear left hand and right foot, Can't help feeling it must have been more intuitive than left hand with left foot and right hand with right foot.
Austin Prefect said:
Old British bikes had the clutch on the left handlebar and the front brake on the right like modern ones, but the rear brake pedal was on the left and the gearchange on the right. So to brake you coordinated right hand and left foot, to change gear left hand and right foot, Can't help feeling it must have been more intuitive than left hand with left foot and right hand with right foot.
Grew up on British bikes, but also had a couple of Japanese. You soon get used to the different setups but if you've been riding one for a long time it can go a bit wrong if you need to brake a bit sharpish!
Friend was not impressed when I was riding one of his Jap bikes & had to do exactly that but stamped on the gear shift!
Fortunately it was disc fronts & stopped me fine.
Bear in mind that with both you also have to remember which gear you are in so you press the selector lever in the right direction up & down - & on a modified bike esp cafe racers it wasn't that uncommon to fit the gear lever 180 deg from its normal position, so it then works the other way round.
Playing a chord on a guitar. One hand needs to hold down the chord while the other does the strumming. You can argue you can still make it make a noise without depressing a chord though.
Yale locks where you have to turn your key and pull / push the door at the same time in order to make it move?
Operating a lighter where you have to flint and depress the gas at almost the same time?
Operating the gas knob on my cooker requires me to depress it for the click and twist for the gas at the same time? I guess I could always just have the gas knob twisted on and then depress the clicker though.
Yale locks where you have to turn your key and pull / push the door at the same time in order to make it move?
Operating a lighter where you have to flint and depress the gas at almost the same time?
Operating the gas knob on my cooker requires me to depress it for the click and twist for the gas at the same time? I guess I could always just have the gas knob twisted on and then depress the clicker though.
i've often thought piloting small hovercrafts was somewhat counter intuitive. you have to keep the throttle pinned so the bag inflates and you can move anywhere - but that also means you're at full forward thrust everywhere. there are no brakes.
if you want to steer, again, full throttle. if you don't have throttle, you can't steer at all.
similar with small boats with outboard motors - generally, push the rudder left, boat goes right. and again, if you want to turn, you need throttle. the more throttle you have, the tighter turns you can make. no effective brakes either.
if you want to steer, again, full throttle. if you don't have throttle, you can't steer at all.
similar with small boats with outboard motors - generally, push the rudder left, boat goes right. and again, if you want to turn, you need throttle. the more throttle you have, the tighter turns you can make. no effective brakes either.
flying a helicopter? feet and both hands, push that pull this, press that etc.,
I wonder why with todays software they don't just make them easier to fly (I don't fly them btw) - you know, you could make the controls like a car wheel to turn left or right and pull for height and push for down - instead of the helio pedals being for turning left or right, make them right throttle, left "brake" (it slows the aircraft down quicker than just lifting off the throttle)
what I mean is you perhaps could make it similar to driving an auto car so more intuitive, point it where you want to go and the onboard software sorts it out... sort of... Blah blah nonsense etc.,
Driving a digger takes a fair bit of coordination, especially for grading - you need to simultaneously move the boom, arm and bucket to achieve a flat grade. It's made all the more tricky by the fact that the arm and bucket follow an arc which you need to allow for.
Some people pick it up really quickly and others can't get it at all. I'm not too bad at it for an amateur but some of the guys who have been doing it professionally for years are incredibly skilled and can achieve near perfection just by eye.
Some people pick it up really quickly and others can't get it at all. I'm not too bad at it for an amateur but some of the guys who have been doing it professionally for years are incredibly skilled and can achieve near perfection just by eye.
Edited by Snow and Rocks on Monday 16th December 15:02
Forums | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff