Re: Left or right? How to determine?

["Just Looking" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Call one side the Democrat wing of the house and the other side the
Republican wing. By using that nomenclature and schema everyone will then
remember and understand which side they're on. In the end it really doesn't
matter though because it all refers to the same turkey.

wrote in message news:vbmfl75feshhi5utbdbkri4qk0skt4bghf@xxxxxxxxxx

Left side? Right side? How to determine?

Have a customer whose house is large.  On his Keypad I provided a
location description for two smoke detectors.  One description is "SD
left frnt bed" There is another detector labeled as "SD rght frnt bed"

Due to the 16 character limitation this is the best I could do for
describing the left front bedroom and the right front bedroom.

After testing these units a year or so after installation, I verified
the tripped location with the description on the Keypad, and was
immediately confused by the references to left and right, so much so
that I made a note to this effect on the service call sheet.

I ran across this note today, and have begun in earnest to find an
answer to this puzzle:

How do I determine, for example, which side of the house is
the left side of the house?  Is the left side of the house on
my left as I stand outside facing and looking at the front of
  the  house?  Or is the left side of the house on my left side
as I stand inside looking out the front door?

I posed this question to my son-in-law who is a builder. I also posed
it to a customer who is an architect.  I did not receive an answer
from either of them that showed conclusively that their trades
followed a definitive protocol.  The three of us gave varying
examples, all of which were based on the location of the viewer, be it
a fireman, policeman, builder, architect, home owner, etc.

This is an important matter to me, as I need to know how to identify a
location using the terms left and right in conjunction with front and
rear.  The three of us were in agreement with the use of the
adjectives "east and west."  However buildings are not always placed
on a north/south/east/west plane.  Furthermore, responding authorities
may not know where North is, especially when arriving at night, having
made a number of vehicular turns on the way to the fire.

Here are a few examples (you may have more) of determining left from
right, based on usage and position of the viewer:

If I told you to put air in the left front automobile tire,
you would know exactly where to go regardless of where you
were standing when I gave the directive.

If you were a seaman and I told you to paint the right side of
the boat you would know exactly which side to paint, because
the right side of the boat is the starboard side, which is
always on the right side as you look towards the bow from
midship.  The right (starboard) is always in the same
location regardless of where you are standing, aft, forward,
on the pier, in another boat, etc.

In buses, trains, planes, the left (and consequently the
right) is easily determined when you know where the front is,
or where the back is.

I have not researched how theatrical stages are labeled; however the
terms "stage right" and "stage left" are in use, but I do not know if
it means the audiences right or left or the actors right or left when
facing the audience.

Without going much further I think you all get the gist of what I am
looking for.

Do buildings really have a left side and a right side?  Is the
viewer's position the determining factor? Buildings always appear to
have a front and rear, and sometimes sides.

Should the left and right of a building always be predicated on and in
the same manner that is used to locate left and right on a car, plane,
train, boat, skies, bicycle, motorcycle, etc., that is, facing forward
from within or on the device?  In these examples the front is easily
found, and consequently we can therefore apply the labels left, right,
rear.  Why not with a house? From inside the house at the front door
facing out the door I want all to know that the left side of the house
is on my left.  Agree?

So as not to add to the confusion here, please do not use the word
"right" for the word "correct."

Have fun.

Charlie