I'm right handed and I use my left hand to open bottles. I know most people use their dominant hand (which makes more sense). I have no idea why I do this. I first noticed in elementary school when I was trying to open a frozen gatorade bottle with my left hand and a friend asked me why I didn't use my right hand.
So which is your dominant hand and which do you use to open bottles?
EDIT: To clarify, I meant which hand do you use to twist the bottle cap open
Poll: Which hand do you use to open bottles?
Right handed, use left hand (453)
43%
Right handed, use right hand (413)
39%
Left handed, use right hand (101)
10%
Left handed, use left hand (89)
8%
1056 total votes
Your vote: Which hand do you use to open bottles?
(Vote): Right handed, use right hand (Vote): Right handed, use left hand (Vote): Left handed, use left hand (Vote): Left handed, use right hand
To task of holding the object that needs to be opened, which is subject to a variety of factors such as not allowed to fall, pales in comparison to the action of merely twisting a bottle cap a bit. Ergo, since it's only specified for bottles the majority is going to be using their dominant hand to hold the object.
Well, i mean its just normal to "use" the left hand to open a bottle, because most of the physical work is done by the right hand at this moment. The right hand has to hold the bottle + has to do the exact conter-momentum opposed to the momentum of the left hand - so totally normal
Technically I allways use both hands to open a bottle. Besides that, the hand that actually screws off the cap all depends on the situation. If the bottle is to my left i take the bottle with my left hand and open it with my right and visa versa. If the bottle is in the middle, both feels comfortable for me. So you should add ambidextrous.
Right handed, so I feel my right hand/arm strength is greater, therefore makes sense to open it with right hand? Besides, imagine if you were in front of people and failed to open a bottle because you weren't using your strongest hand..
On July 18 2011 00:15 Knalldi wrote: Well, i mean its just normal to "use" the left hand to open a bottle, because most of the physical work is done by the right hand at this moment. The right hand has to hold the bottle + has to do the exact conter-momentum opposed to the momentum of the left hand - so totally normal
On July 18 2011 00:12 legatus legionis wrote: To task of holding the object that needs to be opened, which is subject to a variety of factors such as not allowed to fall, pales in comparison to the action of merely twisting a bottle cap a bit. Ergo, since it's only specified for bottles the majority is going to be using their dominant hand to hold the object.
On July 18 2011 00:16 CoR wrote: i think because with left hand you open it AWAY from your body so its just easier to do then TO the body and smash it vs your body if you fail
Wow that is really interesting, only with your left hand twisting you open it towards your body. But I think the pull action, or opening it towards the body, is also stronger. Towards the body uses the biceps, away the triceps. Generally the bicep curl action is by far more developed than the triceps. From carrying things for example. So you can execute more "power" if you open it with your left hand. Of course this starts to fail as the power required increases.
Edit: To expand, holding an object then also uses the biceps, of which your dominant hand/arm will be the stronger more developed side. If you have to carry heavy things like a travel bag or a set of dishes that break when they fall, you will most likely be using your dominant hand/arm for that since it has the most power and endurance, or the most control. If that is true then you will use your right arm for that and your left arm/hand will automatically get the utensil role, picking things up, placing them down again, opening the door. So naturally opening a bottle falls into that as well. Just another way to look at it Excellent topic btw, would've never thought about this and it's pretty fun.
There should be a "I never noticed, so I can't remember, but if I try now, I won't know what comes naturally because I am thinking about this and it will affect my decision. The only way I will know for certain is if by some chance this thread randomly pops in to my head when I'm in the middle of opening a bottle." option
Not that there's that much disparity but you never want the twisting action to be more powerful than the anchoring action. Although I do random things with my weaker side better (throw a frisbee, kicking).
Right handed, use right hand.. But I am intrigued by this talk of opening using my forehead or arm! Definitely going to give the arm one a shot next time.
On July 18 2011 01:00 ObliviousNA wrote: Unfortunate elipses (...) placement on the title. I REALLY thought you were going somewhere else with this thread...
I'm right handed but I use my left to open bottles. I'm also cross eye dominate, when I aim a gun I naturally close my right eye and align the shot with my left eye even though I'm right handed.
Looks like I'm in the minority that is a leftie and uses their left hand to open bottles. Funnily enough, I use scissors and hold my toothbrush in my right hand
On July 18 2011 01:28 CrimsonLotus wrote: Side bar: "Which hand do you use to…"
I have to admit, it crossed my mind to :D
OT, Right-handed and I use my right hand to open bottles so I guess I'm kinda "normal" in that regard. However, I'm in a similar situation in the way I eat. Almost all right handed I know eat with the fork in their left hand and the knife in their right hand (that's how they put in restaurant too) but I always switch them to eat like a left handed. No real explanation I guess, that's just weird...
Yea this is really surprising. I'm right handed and use my left hand to open bottles. It just seems so much more intuitive, because you move both of your hands in towards each other. I do try switching hands if my left hand is too slippery sometimes.
I feel like the hand that holds the bottle requires more strength than the one spinning the shit. + once you have opened the bottle, are you gonna switch hands to pour the liquid ?
On July 18 2011 01:24 moltenlead wrote: I'm right, use right.
However, my brother is right handed, but he kicks with his left foot.
That has nothing to do with anything :D
I'm left-handed - but my dominant leg is right... My bro is right-handed - but his dominant leg is left...
My dad is right, right My mom is lefty (and doesn't know her leg lol, never played sportskekekeke)
On topic: Lefty - opens with left hand. However when I'm drunk I do it opposite hence (as someone already mentioned) it's your instinct to grab with your dominant hand - hence opening with your non-dominant
Left/Left but more specifically I use my left ring finger to form a circle around the bottle cap and twist it. I am a man of technique rather than brute strength.
i guess it depends on how you grab the bottle, I always grab the bottle by the cap so i grab the bottle with my left hand and open it with the right wich is already in place. However, if im just grabing the bottle with my right hand normaly, i opened with my left hand because its faster.
I'm equally adept at using both hands because I suffer from rheumatoid arthritis which forces me to use my other hand if my master hand is flaring up from the disease.
i've never thought about this before but now i feel like a freak. I hold with my dominate hand (right) and uncap with my left hand. Just feels more natural
I use to think I use both hands, but after reading this thread, I went to grab a beer and really thought about it. Turns out it is natural that I open it with my left hand but if its tough to open, I use my right. This actually makes sense after some thought as my left hand is more agile while my right hand is stronger (I am right handed, but for sports/music, I prefer my left, my layup for basketball is much smoother/creative with my left, but for jump shooting which requires range I use my right).
Thanks to this thread for allowing me to learn something about myself!
Wow lolol Mind = Blown. Left handed but open bottles with the right. Never ever thought about it until just now. I'm going to be thinking about this all day
I'm right handed and open bottles with my left hand. It feels much more natural because once you've opened it, the bottle is still in your right hand to then drink from, rather than switching it between hands after opening it.
It would just look and feel awkward if after you've opened the bottle, you had to swap it between hands before drinking. Or at least that's how I feel.
I use my right hand (I'm right handed) if both are free. I use my left if im playing any games. Wow i just realised i do both. Haha im bottle opening ambidextrous. WHAT?
On July 18 2011 08:43 Freeheals wrote: I'm right handed and use my left hand, might be because the right hand is still doing the majority of the work? I don't really know
Yeah, if the bottle is in your right hand, it's still supporting all of the weight of the bottle and a lot of the force of the twist comes from holding the bottle in place as well.
I always use my left hand for things that need strength, and my right for things that need precision or leverage. So for a bottle I'll hold with the right hand, and then twist the cap with the left.
I thought the question was going to be about something TOTALLY different. :p
LOL same I use my right hand, but I'm pretty sure I use my left sometimes, like when i'm really thirsty because when i'm done opening the bottle, I'm already holding it in my right hand!
Whoa, that's surprising. I open my bottles with my right hand and I'm a righty, but it seems that for both righties and lefties, it's almost 50/50 for dominant/inferior.
Maybe it has more to do with the way your wrist bends. I use my left hand because it just seems more comfortable. "Lefty-Loosy" so I think you can grip the bottle and bend your wrist better with the left hand.
I'm weakly left hand dominant but I mostly open bottles with my right hand. It makes sense to me because I am more likely to hold the drink in my left hand when I drink so of course my right hand is going to be the one that opens it.
Didn't know which option to choose. I use my left hand for things like writing or drawing, using a screwdriver, and sometimes eating (probably missed some activity), while I use my right hand for things like sports (basketball, volleyball, tennis), mouse, using door keys, handling a hammer, eating (including handling a knife) and such. So I'm neither striclty left- or righthanded nor ambidexterous (I do those things with either left or right hand exclusively).
I'm an ambidextrous nerd xD. I write with my left, hold utensils with my left, play sports(holding a tennis racket or throwing a ball) with my right. I remember using regular sissors in the weirdest way as a kid now that I think about it. I would hold it so that it faces down, I guess its kinda hard to put in words but it looked hilarious xD.
I open bottles with either hand, depending on whatever hand happened to grab the bottle with.
Weird this thread made me google ambidexterity and I guess this quote pretty much sums up my situation.
Also, since many everyday devices (such as can openers and scissors) are asymmetrical and designed for right-handed people, many left-handers learn to use them right-handedly due to the rarity or lack of left-handed models.
What about when using the bottle for you right/right people? When I screw the milk cap off (I'm right/left), I use my right hand to pour it in the bowl or hold the bottle to drink since it is already holding it and also my dominate hand. Do right/right people open the bottle then switch hands to drink or pour, or just use their left hand to drink?
If you do use your left hand to drink bottles, what about a glass of water?
Right handed, but i use both hands on opening bottles, im sorta ambidextrous. For example, if i grab the bottle with my left arm, i open it with right hand. So it really depends on which side the bottle is when im grabbing it.
I can play hockey on either side aswell, but im alot better on the left side since i have played with it for multiple years.
And as a minor feat of incredibility, i can enter the bike from either side!
isnt easier if your right handed to twist the top off with your left? because your twisting with both hands anyway, so you grab the less grippy and more awkward end with your right and twist the easy end(the cap) with your left. So your right hand has the harder task.
Right handed and open with right hand. Doesn't make sense to me to do it with my left hand
On July 18 2011 19:17 Project Psycho wrote: isnt easier if your right handed to twist the top off with your left? because your twisting with both hands anyway, so you grab the less grippy and more awkward end with your right and twist the easy end(the cap) with your left. So your right hand has the harder task.
By the way, guys, are you right- or left-footed? I play football with my right foot mainly and my skateboarding stance used to be goofy, while my twin brother plays with his left foot but his stance was goofy as well. Pretty weird.
I write with my left hand and when i play hockey i shoot right, which is normal. If i have to throw something i do it with right hand and i open a bottle with right hand.
Well, I was born a lefty but my mom thought it was bad luck so she hit my hand everytime I used it. Now I am right handed but prefer to use my left for a lot of things. Openning bottles, I can do with either hand. Throwing a ball, I need to use my right hand. Anything else, I can do with either.
Wheres, uses his teeth selection xD When i cant open a bottle with hands due to being slippery etc, i normally use my teeth if i cant find a towel or something to use a grip "/
this thread is infinitely more hilarious if some of these posts are taken out of context. especially because on the bar on the left of the screen the thread comes up as "Which hand do you use to..."
on topic: i switch it up all the time...i think i mostly use my dominant right hand though
If you are right handed then your right hand should always do the most manipulation in any action. Hence, when opening a jar or bottle, your right hand should be gripping and twisting the bottle while your left hand holds the cap.
Look at hockey - the knob hand manipulates the stick the most. So, all right-handed people should be left-hand shots, because they need their right hand to manipulate the stick and their left hand to hold the shaft. Any right-handed person who is a right-handed shot is losing out on what could be a natural advantage.
With your right hand you will be pulling on the cap with your thumb/thumb side of your palm. With your left hand you will be pushing the cap with that side or pulling with your fingers. Why is this relevant? + Show Spoiler +
i dunno is it? I've hurt my hand on beer bottles before.
I open bottles with my right hand and I'm right handed.
I'm left handed and used my left hand...then again I shoot right handed, I use the mouse right handed, but I write left handed. I think my hands are just confused.
I am right handed and using left hand to open bottle. I think I do that because I can hold the bottle firm in my right hand so my left hand can have more momentum to open the bottle quickly.!!
I'm right handed but I vary between right and left hand to open bottles as I seem to used to use both hands. On hard to open bottles I usualy prefer to use right hand, but if it is very hard then I alternate between hands to reduce fatigue and wear the lock down.
I've seen an advertisement where a woman opens a beer bottle using the concave of the eye area. Of course that was acted, they were advertising a certain car which is supposedly "tough". Would be cool to be able to do that though.
both.. sometimes i use my right hand for power... other times i use my right hand to hold it in place while my left hand twists.... sometimes i'll switch if say my one hand hurts
The bottle cap is smaller and requires more dexterity to grip and twist properly ergo you should twist it with your dominant hand which by nature is more dexterous. That's at least how I do it (Right-Right btw)
And more stuck on tops grip is more likely to falter on the cap because of the surface area difference and would also be gripped with the dominant hand.
Since my left hand is injured since a sports accident i can advice you to open difficult ones, like preserving jars, with your right hand.
Reason is, if you have to turn it left to open it, you can apply much more strength to the task then with your left hand without risking injuries. (the joint of the ulna can be damaged much easier due to strain, iirc)
Right Right here, had to grab a bottle to figure out. Also, the thread title shows up as "Which hand do you use to..." in the sidebar and my parents saw that. Possibly undesirable.
EDIT: After experimentation, I actually do it mostly with only one hand. Once I have cracked the seal, I tend to hold the whole bottle in my right hand and unscrew the top with just my thumb and forefinger. At least that feels the most natural now that I am actually thinking about it.
I'm right handed and use my right hand, but only because I snapped both bones in my left forearm when I was younger and the muscles never healed quite right so it hurts to torque my left wrist that way. Before that I would use both hands to open things.
On July 18 2011 00:24 Munk-E wrote: There should be a "I never noticed, so I can't remember, but if I try now, I won't know what comes naturally because I am thinking about this and it will affect my decision. The only way I will know for certain is if by some chance this thread randomly pops in to my head when I'm in the middle of opening a bottle." option
lol this^
I've been sitting here for 10 minutes pretending to open bottles with my hands, and i cannot for the life of me remember what I actually use.
Right handed, twist with right hand. I open bottles by holding the bottle still with left hand and twisting the cap with the right hand, rather than holding the cap still and twisting the bottle or however else it's done.
Right handed - use left hand. I actually twist with my left hand though since years of playing guitar have made my left arm stronger then my dominant right.
I'm ambidextrous and I generally use whichever hand is free at the time. I have a great number of ways of opening bottles as well.
There's the 1 handed grab where you plant the soda down on a surface and use that as a substitute for you're other hand, which can be preformed by either hand. Great for sitting at the desk using the mouse hand to navigate the interwebs while using the keyboard hand to open your drink.
A slight modification to this method can be done where you curl the bottle into your arm, holding onto it with your whole arm, good for walking somewhere with a soda in one hand and other shit in the other. The on the move move.
And of course teh good ole grab bottle with one hand and twist with the other. This also goes both ways, mostly depends on which side the bottle is on.
So ya, there needs to be another option, use both hands.
Interesting. I thought I would agree with the many people claiming to use both hands, yet somehow it rubbed me the wrong way so I started thinking. Not that that is always a good sign mind you.
The more I think of it, I think it goes more like this; When you open a bottle (screw cap I presume?), you are performing two simultaneous actions, where one of the motion is immobilizing the bottle with one hand while opening the cap by twisting the cap or bottle with the other hand.
If this is the case it does not matter which hand actually grabs the screw cap, but which hand does the twisting motion. I am pretty sure I grab the screw cap with both hands from time to time, but I am also quite sure that it is ONLY my right hand that does the twisting motion.
So to sum up I grab the cap with both hands, but only open the bottle with my right.
It seems easier in my eyes that if I am more coordinated with my right hand I will grab it with that. Why would I waste my time to switch it into my other hand?
EPT
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/2C2Qc.png)
