Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2022 March 2

= March 2 =

Does a staircase go up or down?
I'm confused. --Pink Saffron (talk) 03:23, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Both. See stairs. Matt Deres (talk) 03:54, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
 * What about Penrose stairs? PrimeHunter (talk) 06:35, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
 * , you might like to check out the works of M. C. Escher: some of them incorporate exactly this paradoxical device. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.200.66.81 (talk) 13:12, 2 March 2022 (UTC)


 * Now here's one for you: Why does a flamingo stand with one leg lifted? --←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 04:27, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
 * If it tries to reduce the number of body parts touching the ground to less than 1 it doesn't stay below 1 for long. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 06:58, 2 March 2022 (UTC)


 * More generally, see Impossible object. A flat 2D picture can only trick our brains into imagining the image in three dimensions, and normally this is not confusing if you draw it the right way.  However, it is possible to draw a 2D object that tricks the visual processing parts of our brains into seeing the object in 3D in impossible ways.  The Penrose stairs cited above is just one example of this, there are lots of others.  The real answer is "It doesn't go anywhere, it's just a bunch of lines on a paper".  Your brain takes those lines, and tries to make sense of it, and it's drawn in just such a way as to screw with your brain.  -- Jayron 32 13:38, 2 March 2022 (UTC)


 * The question posed by the OP does not reference impossible objects. I assume it is a question about language. If so, the answer is that it depends on the point of view of the speaker. A similar question is, "Does a door lead into or out of&thinsp; a building?" For someone outside, the passage goes "into", but for someone outside, the passage goes "out of". Likewise, for someone on the ground floor of a house wanting to go to the attic, the stairway they need to take goes "up". If they want to go to the cellar, they should take a stairway that goes "down". When returning to the ground floor, these directions flip. (A solid staircase should actually go neither up nor down. It should stay firmly where it is, and leave the going up and down to elevators and escalators.) --Lambiam 15:20, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
 * The classic point of view question: Is the glass half empty or half full? PrimeHunter (talk) 05:08, 3 March 2022 (UTC)
 * And one answer is "It depends on whether you're drinking or pouring." As to the Penrose thing, it depends on whether you're walking clockwise or counter-clockwise. And keep in mind that in the old days, schools had strict rules about which staircases were for which - hence the book title Up the Down Staircase. --←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 08:05, 3 March 2022 (UTC)
 * And talking of impossible objects... Does anyone else sometimes feel stricken with the whole body illusion that their Wikipedia editing is just like desperately trying to keep running up the down escalator? Martinevans123 (talk) 15:33, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Well, if nothing else, at least both are good exercise. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.200.66.81 (talk) 10:41, 3 March 2022 (UTC)

Global coordinates
I have recently come across global coordinates in the format " 30U XC 43133 09144 ". This is almost UTM, but I don't understand the XC and expected six digits in each numeric field. Is this a 'known thing' or is it something someone has just invented? -- SGBailey (talk) 07:23, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
 * Perhaps Military Grid Reference System? In which case it's somewhere southwest of Henley-on-Thames. Card Zero  (talk) 07:46, 2 March 2022 (UTC)
 * I think thta is it. Thank you. -- SGBailey (talk) 08:14, 2 March 2022 (UTC)