[HN Gopher] Which emoji scissors close? (2020)
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Which emoji scissors close? (2020)
Author : philshem
Score : 378 points
Date : 2022-10-27 16:36 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (wh0.github.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (wh0.github.io)
| [deleted]
| Amorymeltzer wrote:
| Previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21942358
| alexambarch wrote:
| I love watching people go in depth and get passionate about
| something that seems so trivial. The next time someone asks why I
| don't use Microsoft's emojis I'll let them know it's because it
| takes too long to cut things with their scissor emoji.
| Joker_vD wrote:
| That's the first time I've heard that there are left- and right-
| handed scissors. Is there actually a noticeable difference in
| usage?
| vl wrote:
| Simple test is to get right-handed scissors and try to cut with
| your left hand (as your are required to do is some projects due
| to tool or space constraints). You'll notice that you have to
| "horizontally" push in opposite way, which is really hard to
| do.
| Sharlin wrote:
| Then there's ergonomic scissors, like the iconic Fiskars ones
| [1], which are obviously extra uncomfortable to use if wrong-
| handed.
|
| [1] You can probably find a pair or two in every Finnish
| household: https://www.fiskars.com/en-us/crafting-and-
| sewing/products/s...
| mrweasel wrote:
| You're going to love this then: There are left-handed bread
| knifes, and I want one.
|
| Bread knifes have a ever so slight slant to the cutting
| surface, to ensure that it actually goes straight through the
| bread. Without it the bottom of the slice will be a little more
| narrow, or thicker, I can't remember. Anyway, if your left
| handed the cut goes into the bread at an angle and the bottom
| get much wider than the top. This happens because the slant in
| the knife is to the wrong side (for left handed people). It is
| basically impossible to compensate for, without attempting to
| use your right hand, which just makes it worse really.
|
| The price of the cheapest available left handed bread knife
| I've been able to find: USD100.
| matsemann wrote:
| Yeah, the edge on a serrated bread knife is like |/ and not
| \/.
|
| I got a cutting knife (Oyo japansk kokkekniv), which has
| holes in it and a bump on one side to get rid of vacuum and
| things sticking to the knife when cutting. I actually got
| that in a lefty version, with the bumps on the other side.
| schiem wrote:
| You have just answered why I've never been able to cut bread
| straight. I always thought I was just bad at it and somehow
| everyone else had mastered bread cutting while I wasn't
| paying attention.
| londons_explore wrote:
| Put the bread face down on the table, and now cut
| horizontally a half inch off the table...
|
| Perfect slice!
|
| You can use this technique even with blunt knives like
| butter knives.
| the_mitsuhiko wrote:
| I accidentally bought a left handed scissor for my son and we
| had to return it. Was incredibly uncomfortable to use.
| samcheng wrote:
| It's noticeable enough that, as a lefty, I learned early on to
| use scissors with my right hand.
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| Handle ergonomics aside, because scissors aren't required to
| have ergonomic handles, you really want the nearer blade on the
| bottom so you can see exactly where the cut will be. A nearer
| top blade would overhang and obstruct the view of the cut line.
|
| People talking about causing the paper to fold are either
| describing how they have subconsciously tilted the scissors to
| be able to see where they are cutting or the fact that many but
| not all scissors have handle shapes that curve wrong if held in
| the wrong hand so they end up holding those specific scissors
| oddly, which means that the scissors are no longer slicing
| perpendicular to the paper.
|
| But handle curvature is not a requirement of scissors, just a
| characteristic of some of them.
|
| If the scissors don't have ergonomically sloped handles, an
| ambidextrous person can comfortably cut with either hand if
| they don't look at what they're doing.
| tsukurimashou wrote:
| oh yeah, I'm left handed and right handed scissors just don't
| cut anything when I use my left hand, they just fold the paper
| Joker_vD wrote:
| I'm also left handed and the only difference I've ever
| noticed is that when I use scissors (whatever they may come
| from) with my right hand, the cuts are less precise. That's
| it. And everything I do with my right hand is less precise
| than when I do it with my left hand.
| ianferrel wrote:
| Yes. When you close scissors, you use your grip to push the
| blades together perpendicular to the direction of travel. This
| makes the blades closer to each other so they slice.
|
| You probably do this without thinking about it due to practice,
| but if you watch little kids try to use scissors, they'll
| sometimes end up with the paper just turning sideways and
| folding flat between the blades.
|
| If you use the correct handed scissors, your natural grasp will
| cause this to happen fairly easily. If you use the wrong handed
| scissors, you have to push your thumb _away_ from your palm at
| the same time you bring it closer to your fingers. Unnatural
| and uncomfortable.
| matsemann wrote:
| I agree with this being the issue. With a right handed
| scissor in my left hand, I feel like I have to "pull" with my
| thumb to keep the blades together. Same scissor in tje right
| hand, that instead is a slight push but that happens
| automatically as I do the cut motions.
| moffkalast wrote:
| Tbf if the grip can alter the distance between the blades you
| need to recalibrate them by adjusting the middle screw
| (unless they're riveted in which case welp) that holds them
| together. Well maintained scissors ought to cut perfectly
| well in both hands.
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| This isn't it. The shape of the handle is orthogonal to
| whether a scissor is left or right handed. The real
| difference is in which blade half is on the bottom.
| ianferrel wrote:
| Right, because which blade half is on the bottom affects
| which direction you need to apply force so the blades meet
| tightly. I didn't mention anything about the shape of the
| handle...
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| What you described misunderstands or at least poorly
| describes the problem.
|
| > _Right, because which blade half is on the bottom
| affects which direction you need to apply force so the
| blades meet tightly._
|
| That would violate Newton's Third Law of motion, so no.
|
| You don't have to apply force in any different direction
| if you put scissors with symmetric handles in the wrong
| hand. You will, however, end up tilting the scissors to
| the side so that you can see what you're doing. But
| that's not the same as needing to apply force any
| differently. It's a required sight issue not a required
| force issue. Anything else only comes from handle shape.
|
| If the scissors don't have ergonomically sloped handles,
| an ambidextrous person can comfortably cut with either
| hand if they don't look at what they're doing.
| jasode wrote:
| _> You don 't have to apply force in any different
| direction if you put scissors with symmetric handles in
| the wrong hand. [...] But that's not the same as needing
| to apply force any differently._
|
| For precision made scissors with tight tolerances at the
| pivot joint and sharp blades (premium brands like Kai,
| Gingher, etc), it will cut with either hand.
|
| But for scissors with a loose rivet (like cheaper
| scissors very common in kids' schools), the gp
| (ianferrel) you replied to is correct: the blades will
| not close tightly if the wrong hand is used to squeeze.
| The loose rivet scissors in the wrong hand will _fold_
| the paper instead of cutting it because the natural
| finger-closing motion will _spread the blades apart
| creating a tiny gap_ instead of making them touch.
|
| Here's a 1-minute video that tries to visually explain
| what a left-handed person struggling with a right-handed
| scissor experiences:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyGCvSCnkWk
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| It sounds like you and they have decided that a human
| hand scissoring may only push inward or outward or
| neither using one side of the hand but not the other.
| That's not true about hands or about scissors though,
| even poorly constructed scissors. Your thumb and fingers
| of both hands are equally capable of producing both
| separating and joining force while closing. You and they
| have just decided that curling your fingers and pushing
| your thumb outward is right and the opposite is wrong,
| but the opposite works too. The scissors don't care and
| hands support both.
| cbm-vic-20 wrote:
| TIL: I've been using scissors wrong my entire life. I
| didn't realize that you need to push the handles to apply
| lateral force to the blades to make them slide against
| each other, the more the better.
| anyfoo wrote:
| Sorry for asking, but isn't that... obvious? So obvious
| that I bet most people just don't think about it
| consciously at all. If you don't do that, they don't cut
| properly, but it's likely to be something that the brain
| sorts out for you without you realizing the forces you
| apply.
| ianferrel wrote:
| You probably haven't been. You probably learned it with
| muscle memory as a kid and just weren't aware of it. I
| wasn't aware of it until I was in my late 30s and was
| helping my kids learn to use scissors.
| nyanpasu64 wrote:
| And for the average scissors I use, it won't cut properly
| in _either hand_. Interestingly haircut scissors are
| _better_ at cutting paper than regular paper scissors! I
| tried disassembling a pair of haircut scissors, and found
| the screw is interestingly rotationally locked to the
| blade next to the _nut_ (rather than screw head), and the
| nut has a spring-loaded locking mechanism (a planar
| version of mouse wheel notches) so it doesn 't rotate
| unless you turn the nut with a large amount of torque.
| ianferrel wrote:
| >You don't have to apply force in any different direction
| if you put scissors with symmetric handles in the wrong
| hand.
|
| Yes! You do!
|
| So scissors hinge on a pivot point, and they hinge in
| _two_ dimensions. They mostly move in the dimension that
| they cut in, but they also move _a little_ in the
| perpendicular dimension. And in order to bring the
| cutting edges _closer_ , you move the handle ends
| _farther_ away. If you 're using the correct-handed
| scissors, doing so is easy and natural because your hand
| grip curls one way easily. If you then switch the same
| scissors to the other hand, it's hard and uncomfortable
| because your other hand is a mirror image and your
| natural hand grip curls to bring the handles closer and
| the cutting edges farther away.
|
| The fact that you keep mentioning that this violates some
| law of physics is bonkers.
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| Your thumb and fingers of both hands are equally capable
| of producing both separating and joining force while
| closing. You learned to do it one way, by pushing out
| with your thumb and pulling in with your other fingers,
| so that way feels better to you, but that's a property of
| you not a property of scissors.
| bscphil wrote:
| It's got nothing to do with hand capability, you've
| misunderstood. For an ambidextrous person, using right-
| handed scissors in their right hand will work properly,
| using right-handed scissors in their left hand will work
| poorly. And vice versa for left-handed scissors.
|
| When holding scissors, the bottom blade is held fairly
| steady. The top blade tends to get pushed _away_ from the
| rest of the hand by the action of the thumb. If the top
| blade is on the _far_ side of the scissors (away from the
| hand), the far blade edge will get pushed _towards_ the
| near blade edge when the thumb handle is pushed away
| (because the blade is on the other side of the hinge from
| the handle). If the top blade is on the _near_ side of
| the scissors (the hand side), by pushing the thumb handle
| away from you, you are separating the two blades rather
| than pushing them together.
|
| So on right handed scissors, with the thumb handle facing
| up, the thumb blade is on the left side of the hinge.
| That way the natural "push away" force from the thumb
| will keep the blades close together when held in the
| right hand. On left handed scissors, the thumb blade is
| on the right side of the hinge, for the correct push-
| together force when held in the left hand.
| brainfish wrote:
| It's so weird you are choosing this hill to die on. And
| you are completely wrong; 7-year-old left-handed me had
| the empirical experience to know this.
| ianferrel wrote:
| >Your thumb and fingers of both hands are equally capable
| of producing both separating and joining force while
| closing.
|
| What makes you so sure? The ergonomics of the thumb,
| fingers, and hand are not symmetric. The left-handed
| people who struggled with right-handed scissors as kids
| suggest otherwise.
| krsrhe wrote:
| It's because people aren't aware the 2nd dimension, the
| looseness of the connection between the planes of the
| blades, where the screw isn't (and can never be)
| perfectly tight yet still allows the blades to slide.
| It's hard to get the idea across in text. Your second
| comment helped a lot.
| tuhriel wrote:
| It definitely has also to do with the force applied. If
| the blades are setup for the other hand your default grip
| will puah the blades apart and you can get the paper
| between the blades Thats why as a lefty I had major
| issues with the cheap scissors (which had a ton of play
| on the hinge) we had in school, bit if you have a
| decently made scissor the issue is much less severe.
| BugsJustFindMe wrote:
| Sorry, what you're describing violates Newton's Third
| Law. The force applied by one side is equal and opposite
| to the force from the opposing side. Scissor blades,
| paper, and force don't care which side is up. Anything
| other than line of sight is 100% handle ergonomics, and
| scissors aren't required to have wrong-side-incompatible
| handles.
| ianferrel wrote:
| The sight issue is true (but in my opinion not the major
| difference).
|
| Have you watched little kids learn to use scissors? You
| really _do_ need to apply force to bring the blades
| together or they won 't cut well. You likely do this
| unconsciously. I didn't think about it until I was
| teaching my children how to cut with scissors and noticed
| that they would generally end up folding the paper were I
| could cut it (toddler scissors aren't very sharp, so it's
| even more important to push the blades together from the
| side).
| rvbissell wrote:
| The comment you replied to never mentions handles (their
| shape, or otherwise).
| lyptt wrote:
| I never much point in them as a kid. I'm left handed and I
| found it harder to use left handed scissors in my left hand
| than using right handed scissors in my right hand.
| NackerHughes wrote:
| It depends, I guess. I'm left-handed and sometimes I like to
| hold the object I'm cutting with my left hand, rather than
| the scissors.
| Freak_NL wrote:
| I've always used right-handed scissors as these are simply the
| default, but a year ago I bought proper left-handed scissors
| (one general purpose and one for fabric) and now after almost
| 40 years of using the wrong type of scissor I can't imagine
| ever suffering those again. You can use the wrong scissors, but
| you're constantly compensating and getting a cramped hand in
| return. It makes a huge difference.
| philo23 wrote:
| I'm left handed but I've always used right handed scissors in
| my right hand. I can actually cut with either, but cutting
| right handed has always been more natural for me. Using the
| left handed scissors in my left hand requires more
| concentration.
|
| The only real benefit I've ever noticed of left handed scissors
| is that when you hold them in your left hand, you can see the
| point on the paper where the blades are going to cut. Holding a
| pair of right handed scissors in your left hand (or vice-versa)
| obscures that point behind the top blade, making it a lot
| harder to make accurate cuts.
|
| If you try holding a pair of regular right handed scissor in
| your left hand you should be able to see the issue of the top
| blade covering the part of the paper you want to cut. Which let
| me tell you, makes following dotted lines a lot harder in
| school if you're using them on the wrong hand...
|
| That's the only difference I've ever come across anyway, not
| sure what other commenters are talking about with the paper
| turning sideways!
| bondarchuk wrote:
| I just got the nearest pair of scissors and cut a sheet of
| paper with it, it was equally easy both with my left hand and
| my right. Even holding it very loosely so I couldn't secretly
| unconsciously apply some horizontal force it cut fine, as well
| as when tilted slightly left or right. The two halves seem
| perfectly identical, too, so I don't know what's this talk
| about "nearer blade on the bottom" either by some sibling
| comment, seems like both blades are about equally near and
| obviously one is on the bottom and the other on top.
|
| So in short I have no idea what everyone's on about.
| mkl wrote:
| Some scissors are more ambidextrous than others. If the
| blades are curved towards each other enough then you may not
| need sideways pressure from your thumb and fingers, and even
| sideways pressure in the wrong direction may not matter. I
| have some scissors like this and some not.
|
| Alternatively, it's possible to apply the sideways pressure
| in the opposite direction to the "natural" one, and thereby
| use scissors with the hand they're not intended for (you may
| even be doing that without realising - I do). My dad is left-
| handed but struggles to use left-handed scissors as he didn't
| have access to them until later in life and is just used to
| applying sideways pressure in the "wrong" direction.
| bondarchuk wrote:
| > _If the blades are curved towards each other enough then
| you may not need sideways pressure from your thumb and
| fingers_
|
| I've never heard of nor seen scissors with blades curved
| towards each other and I don't see why they ever would be
| anything but straight in that dimension.
| im3w1l wrote:
| I did the same and had the same result. From reading the the
| other comments, I suspect a high-end pair of scissors is more
| tolerant of technique whereas as low end scissor you have to
| push and pull the blades just so for it to work.
| mortehu wrote:
| We have a pair of nail scissors that I cannot use to cut my
| right hand's fingernails. Most aren't like this, so it's
| clearly possible to make ambidextrous scissors.
| cloudier wrote:
| Similar posts:
|
| - Ants: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17555842
|
| - Smiling faces: https://grouplens.org/blog/investigating-the-
| potential-for-m...
|
| - Butterflies: http://emilydamstra.com/news/please-enough-dead-
| butterflies/
|
| - Trains:
| https://mobile.twitter.com/BisTheFairy/status/11925577307096...
|
| - Horses:
| https://twitter.com/jelenawoehr/status/1191872816372600832?l...
|
| - Planets:
| https://mobile.twitter.com/physicsJ/status/12326622114383708...
|
| - Telescopes:
| https://mobile.twitter.com/BeckePhysics/status/1233414553607...
|
| - Parachutes: https://darekkay.com/blog/parachute-emoji/
|
| - Chickens: https://www.tumblr.com/ub-
| notactive/176663342440/reviewing-a...
|
| - Snakes:
| https://anothertiredmonster.tumblr.com/post/156610510939/sna...
| culi wrote:
| This is an incredible collection. Thank you so much for keeping
| it
| dang wrote:
| I still want to write some software to support community-
| curated lists of related links. It would include whatever I'm
| currently posting as "related"* plus fabulous contributions
| like cloudier's above.
|
| * https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&qu
| e...
| stavros wrote:
| https://linkpack.io?
|
| https://www.linkpack.io/lp/5nGYs4/
| culi wrote:
| This is also a dream of mine and I have many thoughts
| around this. I have a lot of little collections like this
| list and have always wanted a way to open this up to
| community contributions
|
| I also don't think "awesome lists" are a sufficient
| solution for a number of reasons. Like this list is a
| perfect example of something that would (1) definitely get
| ignored on GitHub, (2) not reach the most likely target
| audiences, (3) not be easy to contribute to for basically
| anyone who doesn't know what a "git" is (so, the majority
| of people on earth)
| bondarchuk wrote:
| You often find these on github as "awesome-[something]" and
| accepting contributions as PRs.
| jonathankoren wrote:
| Whenever I peruse emojidex or any other emoji comparison, it's
| obvious that Apple that sets the emoji and pretty much everyone
| else copies it.
| Gigachad wrote:
| Apple is usually first to get their designs in to the OS so
| everyone else sort of has to or they will be the odd ones out.
| Especially when most users are on iOS, the expectations are set
| on what ios displays it as.
| ziacker wrote:
| jtolmar wrote:
| Lovely little collection of sites like this, which showed up last
| time - https://href.cool/Crimes/Simple
|
| (I linked to the category that the scissors is filed under, but
| the collection is extensive)
| mgdlbp wrote:
| Ironically named site doesn't like deep linking -- navigate
| from https://href.cool/
| squokko wrote:
| Microsoft's emojis are so bad that it seems like they were
| intentionally made terrible.
| cglong wrote:
| They've been updated for Windows 11, which was released after
| this article :)
| OJFord wrote:
| I've never really understood (said like I've spent much time
| thinking about it!) why wrong-handed scissors are so
| difficult/impossible to use. We must angle them slightly, sub-
| consciously, w.r.t. our standing vertical (out of the plane
| projected forward from our figure)?
| sushid wrote:
| Are you a lefty? I'm a lefty scissors user as well so I've
| gotten used to right hand scissors (you just push the bottom
| blade to the right as you cut). That may not be the case for
| most right handed folks since it "just works" most of the time.
| tomcam wrote:
| I just gave up & learned scissors, guitar, fencing, etc
| right-handed. Only things I do as a lefty are writing and
| baseball.
| OJFord wrote:
| No, right-handed, but left-handed were readily (read: overly)
| available at school so I recall trying them thinking surely
| it's just a comfort thing at most how could it possibly make
| a difference, and the paper or whatever just flopping up
| parallel to the blades instead of being cut.
| iforgotpassword wrote:
| That happens the other way round too, hence the workaround
| GP suggested. It's a little uncomfortable because you
| naturally push the other way while cutting, but you can get
| used to it.
|
| When you use left handed scissors with your right hand, you
| apply some force to the blades that moves them slightly
| apart, while with right-handed ones, you force them
| together tightly. You need to actively work against that.
| LanceH wrote:
| Right hander with right handed scissors, you pull the lower
| loop toward yourself and push the upper loop away, this pushes
| the blades into each other. If you can use the "wrong-handed"
| scissors, you can reverse the pull/push and get the blades
| together, but it feels weird/unnatural. It does work, though.
| MichaelCollins wrote:
| I'm a lefty and left-handed scissors are impossible for me to
| use. And not from lack of exposure I think, one of my memories
| from elementary school was the teacher trying to make me use
| left-handed scissors because she knew I was a lefty, but they
| simply wouldn't cut for me.
|
| I think there must be more to the left/right handed thing,
| because I'm effectively right-handed in everything I do
| _except_ writing. Even in novel tasks I haven 't done before:
| I'll try first left handed, it doesn't work, then I try again
| right handed and it works fine. But when it comes to writing
| specifically, I'm very clearly a lefty.
| ummonk wrote:
| To be clear, which hand have you tried to use left handed
| scissors with, and which has do you use right handed scissors
| with?
| Double_a_92 wrote:
| Because you subconsciously push the blades togheter in the
| right way, so the gap gets narrower and the cut sharper. While
| if the scissor is mirrored you pull them apart.
| vl wrote:
| And if you teach child to use scissors, you need to explain
| how to pull, otherwise they can't use them.
| layer8 wrote:
| I'm surprised there aren't "left-handed"/"right-handed" emoji
| modifiers yet for more inclusivity.
| 867-5309 wrote:
| don't forget the ambis
| layer8 wrote:
| Unicode modifiers can stack. ;)
| knolan wrote:
| What about the original scissors?
|
| -----8<-----
| tsomctl wrote:
| > My last post was about either How to transport a convex object
| on a camel or Android Studio's "Code contains easter egg"
| inspection. Find out which.
|
| I realize one option is supposed to be ludicrous, but based on
| this post, either option is possible.
| [deleted]
| jimmaswell wrote:
| The handles could be designed to overlap in the 3rd axis. I think
| I've seen scissors like this but I can't find an example.
| mc32 wrote:
| It's an icon. A representation of the actual thing. It does not
| have to conform to actual physical requirements.
|
| It's neat I guess, but isn't really a productive pursuit.
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| > It's neat I guess, but isn't really a productive pursuit.
|
| Heaven forbid someone's curiosity doesn't result in something
| useful.
|
| Sometimes people do things for fun and self-satisfaction.
| samb1729 wrote:
| > It's neat I guess, but isn't really a productive pursuit.
|
| Yes, and? No one claimed otherwise. It's just a fun thing
| someone did, shared with other people who might want to be
| briefly entertained.
| jraph wrote:
| > It's an icon. A representation of the actual thing. It does
| not have to conform to actual physical requirements.
|
| The article say it.
|
| > but isn't really a productive pursuit.
|
| It's fun and kinda interesting though. If you reflect on what
| productive things enable, at the end, it's always "futile".
| alambra wrote:
| A lot of the emojis also seem to have a bevel along the inside
| cutting edge, making it impossible to cut anything because the
| edges of the two blades don't meet. A real pair of scissors would
| only have a bevel on the outside edge.
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(page generated 2022-10-27 23:00 UTC)