Are you spatially minded or not?

[XmisterIS]

I have just been (unsuccessfully) helping a friend to assemble some flat pack furniture because she wasn't sure that she would be able to do it herself. Normally, with just me involved, this would be a calm, swift and methodical exercise. So, when I arrived I put my logical head on and said, "let's get it all unpacked first". So, I methodically opened the packaging, got out all the bits, carefully sorted them and laid them out at right-angles to each other, collected all the fixings and counted them, etc, flattened out the instructions and laid them in a suitable spot on the floor so that they were visible all together. 5 minutes later, we were ready to start. "I'll just nip to the loo. Do you want a cup of tea?", I said.

Famous last words ...

When I returned 10 mins later, she had heaped up all the bits in a pile - fixings, instructions, the whole lot in a big heap. She was sitting in the middle of it with two completely unrelated components which she'd liberally covered in superglue and stuck together. I kid ye not. The superglue didn't even come with the furniture, it was her own (she thinks superglue can do anything).

Well, that was the end of that!

Back to the shop she goes tomorrow to get another one, seeing as she can't take the existing one back that she's now ruined. I have refused to help her with the next one unless she lets me do all of it!!

It's not her "fault" as such (well, it is, she buggered it all up!), but she has absolutely no spatial awareness whatsoever. She's not stupid, she just can't see things in 3D in her head.

She can't read a map for toffee either, which in the past has been mind-bendingly frustrating for me! We've had conversations in the car like:

"Are we getting near the road that we need yet?"
"Umm, perhaps ..."
"Perhaps?"
"Yes"
"Well, how far are we?"
"Ummm, I'm not sure".
"Is this the road coming up on the left?"
"Ummm, I dunno."
(I stop the car briefly to look at the map in her lap)
"Yes it is!"
"Is it? How do you know?"
"Well, look at the layout of that junction on the map - it's the same as the one infront of us. And that bend in the road."
"How do you know that?"
"Because I'm looking at it on the map ... look ... that there ... this here ... the same thing ..."
"Is it?"
"Oh my God!!"

etc ...

The problem is, for me it is inconceivable how anyone can not have spatial awareness. I can't imagine not being able to manipulate 3D objects in my head. I just "do" it. Funnily, it's words that I struggle with - I can't solve anagrams for toffee and I get lost in big words. My friend is the other way around! She writes effortlessly, quickly, with no mistakes and is amazingly good at Scrabble - she always beats me hands down!

'tis a funny thing, the mind ...

 

[coffeejo]

I can't do the 3D thing either. I have to turn the map so that it "points" the same way that I am physically facing. Flatpack furniture, however, I can do with no problems, but I have to lay it all out in position before I get the tools out. And, I confess, my brain has yet to grasp the mechanics of how my gears work. I know they do, and I know how to use them, but I cannot get a hold of how it all works.

 

[Angelfishsolo]

Some things I can just see like Home Cinema wiring or computer diagnostics. I am pretty good with FP furniture and am ok with all but OS maps. Spelling puts me into a tail spin but I love words. Yep the brain is a funny thing indeed

 

[Angelfishsolo]

Gears are all to do with the physics fairies; just leave it at that

And, I confess, my brain has yet to grasp the mechanics of how my gears work. I know they do, and I know how to use them, but I cannot get a hold of how it all works.

 

[Dayvo]

Yes - I'm male!

 

[TheDoctor]

I'm reasonably spatially aware, and generally have no problems with flat-packs.
I do prefer to orient the map with the landscape, but that's how I was taught to do it in the Boys Brigade.
As for how the gears work, can you see that if the sprocket with the pedals on is bigger than the one on the back wheel, then turning the pedals once will make the back wheel turn more than once? That's a high gear.
If they're the same size, then one turn of the pedals = one turn of the back wheel. That's a low gear.
The front and rear mechs are just a way of stacking different sizes of sprocket next to each other, persuading the chain to move from one sprocket to another one, and keeping the chain from going slack.
Now, Sturmey Archer hub gears, they're complicated!!

 

[coffeejo]

Yes - I'm male!

 

[TVC]

I have a degree in Engineering, specialising in Mechanical Design. I've always had an instinct for forming 3D images in my mind and transferring them to paper in 2D. I also look at drawings or maps and visualise the object/landscape very easily.

I thought everyone could do this until one day I was running through a design with a colleague (Marketing Dept) and he just couldn't read the drawing and interpret some of the quite simple concepts on it. Weird I thought, but then again, I just can't get the hang of languages and get to grips with abstract constructions such as verb endings in Latin or German, I suppose my mind is very 'visual' rather then 'structured'.

 

[coffeejo]

I'm reasonably spatially aware, and generally have no problems with flat-packs.
I do prefer to orient the map with the landscape, but that's how I was taught to do it in the Boys Brigade.
As for how the gears work, can you see that if the sprocket with the pedals on is bigger than the one on the back wheel, then turning the pedals once will make the back wheel turn more than once? That's a high gear.
If they're the same size, then one turn of the pedals = one turn of the back wheel. That's a low gear.
The front and rear mechs are just a way of stacking different sizes of sprocket next to each other, persuading the chain to move from one sprocket to another one, and keeping the chain from going slack.
Now, Sturmey Archer hub gears, they're complicated!!

I think that if someone showed me, I might stand a chance, but I can't visualise it in my own head.

Til then, I'm sticking with the physics fairies

 

[marinyork]

Yes I am.

I just don't bother giving map directions any more, leads to far too much trouble and misunderstanding. The navigating by pubs method is probably the alternative method I get on best with with regards to other people.

 

[Globalti]

I once won a bet by assembling an Ikea bedside cabinet blindfold. It ain't hard once you've done a few flatpack items because the designers always use the same joiners and techniques.

 

[TheDoctor]

Get the bike upside-down on the coffee table and have a look. Forget about all the other sprockets, just look at the ones the chain is on. Then change gear and watch what goes on as the chain moves about. That's the nice thing about gears, it's all hanging out in the open where you can see it.

 

[TheDoctor]

I also navigate by pubs. I recently described a local hill as 'The one that goes from the Roebuck Hotel to the Lytton Arms'

 

[vernon]

The navigating by pubs method is probably the alternative method I get on best with with regards to other people.

Try navigating by pie shops

 

[coffeejo]

Try navigating by pie shops

Impossible. I'd never get past the first one