It’s a recurring scene in desert movies – a group of lost people try to find their way through the dunes but end up walking round in circles.
Now scientists have shown that the old cliché really is true, and that without help from the sun or stars people are unable to walk in a straight line.
Researchers in Germany left six volunteers in a forest and asked them to keep going in the same direction. On cloudy days – with no sun to guide them – the volunteers ended up walking in circles and crossing their paths without realising it.
Daily Mail (Thanks Eliza)
Everyone knows it’s because you have one leg shorter than the other. Tsk.
That will explain why I’m always getting lost.
Good movie.
Well, ofcourse not truely running in circles .. that just sounded good so that’s why they used it ….
I indeed can imagine that it is hard to keep a straight line .. you can already notice this on short walks every day .. if you dont focus or are a bit silly on the inside you will bump into walls at times or find yourself going t the other side of the hallway … you sort of keep track of both walls .. or both sides of the road (in a car you will do the same at times .. ooooops .. did I almost go off the road …). And that without alcohol! Or is the alternative for alcohol in our chemistry lab that does make us not be this robots ….hm …?
Whatever makes people do this type of research I wonder. You dont need to go to a forest nor sahara nor does it have to be a cloudy day ..
Navigating through a forest without paths or sunlight is really difficult, before you know it you’ve turned around… Trick is to take a point in the distance straight ahead and walk towards that, when you’re halfway there take a new point behind the point you’re walking to…
Sounds like me trying to figure out your clues…
here’s a kewl demonstration in java:
http://webphysics.davidson.edu/Applets/randomwalk/default.html
studies like this are used to search for wandering alzheimers patients. it’s been found that most people will circle to the right, so that’s a starting point in the search. then, when an alzheimers patient comes across a barrier they cannot negotiate such as a wall or stream, they will simply walk along it until it ends. it’s helpful to know these things when searching.
A blind man walks in circles when left with out a guide of any sort, so does a person blindfolded. This has been known for years. At least they have found out that we need the stars, the sun and moon to navigate.
If you doubt what I have said look up the book Still More, Tell Me Why? I can’t remember who it is by, but I used to read it when I was 8. It’s a fascinating little read.
I drew a crop circle once in my sleep, wasn’t me guv honest!
Isn’t this the premise of ‘The Blair Witch Project’?
Show us the light, Guys, c’mon…
Did they make clockwise circles in the northern hemisphere, and anti-clockwise circles in the southern hemisphere, do we think?
Is it just me.. or does it seem like the ‘Powers That Be’ are trying to tell us something?
‘It’s a recurring scene in desert movies – a group of lost people try to find their way through the dunes but end up walking round in circles.’
No?
Just me then!
The Sun! The Daily Star! (Is that still running?)
that’s a trilogy by Arkady Leokum: Tell Me Why, More Tell Me Why, & Still More Tell Me Why. (gee, what’s he gonna do fer his next book, Yet Even More Tell Me Why Already?
)
@ Amie, I had the same thought… I’ve certainly been thinking in circles!!
A sample size of 6 people can be extrapolated out to the entire human population?!?! Riiiight, nice one ’scientists’…
The Sun, The Star……….. I remember it last time as The Daily Nail …. ahem I meant Mail…. The Daily Mail, sorry.
pu nuseht is the ‘lord of risings’
Taken from ‘Finnegans wake’ by James Joyce.
A book written in the form of a stream of concious as opposed to an edited structured story. Google it.
I wonder if that means with a stream of our conciousnesses Derren will raise the sun at night, that would be cool.
The above isn’t exactly true saying it’s a stream of concious (an example of speed reading as outlined on the other thread on this blog there). No it’s a book with altered language with words reversed and altered with no general rules in it’s exicution. Can’t post the link because refuse to pay for iPod upgrade to 3.0.
Sounds like “The Blair Witch Project” to me, except with that movie the plot went round in circles going nowhere as well as the characters.
My wife says it’s because I ignore her directions when we get lost
The sun and stars are amazing
Can we hear it for the moon too please? Lets not discriminate.
:-p
x
i don’t know. perhaps our axis is askew