clockwise direction
Sign in to saveTwo-dimensional rotation can occur in two possible directions, or senses of rotation. Clockwise motion (abbreviated CW) proceeds in the same direction as a clock's hands relative to the observer: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back up to the top. The opposite sense of rotation or revolution is (in Commonwealth English) anticlockwise (ACW) or (in North American English) counterclockwise (CCW). Three-dimensional rotation can have similarly defined senses when considering the corresponding angular velocity vector.
Article
8 sectionsContents
- Terminology
- Usage
- Shop-work
- Mathematics
- Games and activities
- Alternative, normal right/left rotation
- See also
- References
Two-dimensional rotation can occur in two possible directions, or senses of rotation. Clockwise motion (abbreviated CW) proceeds in the same direction as a clock's hands relative to the observer: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back up to the top. The opposite sense of rotation or revolution is (in Commonwealth English) anticlockwise (ACW) or (in North American English) counterclockwise (CCW). Three-dimensional rotation can have similarly defined senses when considering the corresponding angular velocity vector.
==Terminology== thumb|Viewed from the north, Earth rotates anticlockwise or counterclockwise Before clocks were commonplace, the terms "sunwise" and the Scottish Gaelic-derived "deasil" (the latter ultimately from an Indo-European root for "right", shared with the Latin ) were used to describe clockwise motion, while "widdershins" (from Middle Low German , lit. "against direction") was used for counterclockwise motion.