[neilep (OP)]

If you close your eyes and are a passenger in a car (NOT the driver)....it's fairly straight forward to tell if you turn left or right !

Why is this ?....assuming I am receiving no pressure from my sides (as a clue when turning) , and that I am sitting in the middle of the car....what is telling me that I am turning ?

I would ask wifey but she's been  lost coming back from the kitchen !!

(typical girly....excellent at phone to ear orientation but little else !!) []

[another_someone]

The same system in your inner ear that tells you what is up and what is down.  When you turn left or right, you are creating a centrifugal force that alters the nett force on your body, so when you turn right, your body thinks the earth has shifted to the left (but your backside tells you that it has not).

If you make a turn on a heavily banked corner, you would be hard put to tell which direction you have turned, because the banking of the corner means the nett force remains down, and agrees with what your backside sitting on the chair tells you ought to be down.

[neilep (OP)]

Thank you George.

I am amazed at how sesnitive the inner ear...because it's possible to detect even the slightest of turns