Basically the title but when we do a “U” turn we actually make a small n not a U.
Capital ‘N’ is written differently; ‘U’ and ‘u’ are unambiguous.
But what about T-junction/t-junction?
Good point. I’m calling it coffee junction from now on.
There’s already a road sign resembling a capital ‘N’, but there isn’t an equivalent possible confusion for T/t.
Or on different fonts the T and I is indistinguishable
I think you mean tndtsitngutshable
yeah
I’d kinda feel uncomfortable calling it an “n-turn”.
Sounds kinda racist, honestly
U u
N n
Because ultimately, U are the one who must make the turn.
Just call it an intersection turn and use ∩
It’s Unicode U+2229. So I guess we all can formally agree to call it U+2229 turn ? Or in short U turn ? No ?
How do you pronounce it though? 🤔
“intersection”
“backslash cap” :P
To make an n-turn, you’d need to star from the other side of the street, drive forward, and then back up while steering around the bend.
When creating traffic laws and regulations, this was deemed too dangerous, so they went with “u”.
(You should have seen the options when they were using a serif font…)
In China they call them biang biang turns.
Biang a U-ey is something we have here too.
I’ll Xiè myself out
Maybe it was named by someone watching it from the other side of the road, and not the one doing it?
Capitalization, I guess. “u-turn” and “U-turn” boil down to the same movement, while “n-turn” and “N-turn” don’t work so well together.
An N turn is presumably parallel parking
Does it count as a turn if you remain pointed in the same direction?
I feel like it has to, otherwise turning 360 degrees isn’t a turn
Why would it be an n-turn? The n shape suggests you back up before turning. The capital U asserts that you simply turn. That’s how I’ve always done it.
because it was originally called a You-Turn, because driving instructors said “Now you turn”, and people heard it as “Now you-turn”, and then abbreviated it as “u-turn”
Think it just depends on what perspective the spectator takes.
For any mathematician a n-turn would be a turn segmented into n directional changes. /s
…where n∈ℕ and n>1
I think it’s based on two things: where you are and how the letters start when written.
When writing letters n and U, both are started at their leftmost position (for most people) and their topmost position (for most people).
In the UK, or other places where you drive on the left, a u-turn would make a little n. While you aren’t starting the turn from the topmost position of the letter, you are starting on the left of the letter.
In the US and other countries where you drive on the right, you make a U-turn because viewed from above you are making a U that starts from the top and left of the letter. While from your immediate perspective while driving your making a lowercase n but starting from the right, from above it’s the classic U movement that occurs.
Just a guess though.
Maybe it depends on your vehicle? I definitely do more U than “n” turns
I believe OPs point has to do with the direction. From a top-down perspective driving forwards would look like driving upwards, then turning and driving downwards, like an n. U flipped/rotated 180 degrees.
Ahh that makes more sense. I was thinking about the nub of the “n” being included as part of the motion
Yeah the nub invalidates the n. It’s the wrong shape.
Maybe it’s an US thing?
I guess it’s because the U is drawn in 1 fluent motion, a u and an n have the extra line, compared to the U.
My U has the same extra line, just on the right.
*A US thing, by the way, as U begins with /j/ (the ‘y’ sound in you).
In most fonts the uppercase U has no extra line, most don’t write one in upper case as well when handwriting.
Must be thought off in the US, as they have space on the road for U turns though. Most other countries are stuck with 3 point turns. (Or in my case, a lot more, my car has a turningcircle of a battleship)
