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Given below is a picture of a car (from top view). Find out on which side is the steering wheel - left or right.

enter image description here

Source: Geometry Olympiad in honour of I. F. Sharygin, 2007

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Ankoganit
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    Please make sure your answer adds something to the existing answers before posting. Thank you! –  Jun 26 '16 at 19:18
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    On the right side. Because the left side is the rear of the car. – IanF1 Jun 26 '16 at 19:47
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    @Servaes We have two different brand cars have fuel hatches on different sides even though their wheels are on the same side. – Cem Kalyoncu Jun 27 '16 at 10:46
  • @CemKalyoncu most cars have the fuel hatch on the opposite site of the steering wheel for savety reasons (easy refuel if you have a breakdown). There are exceptions, but most european cars have the fuel hatch on the right side. It's similar with the exhaust pipe: It's on the same side as the steering wheel (to keep exhaust fumes away from pedestrians). – Marc Jun 27 '16 at 11:36
  • @Cem Kalyoncu I find that a bit odd (for safety reasons), but that goes to show I was too quick to conclude. I do hope both your cares have the wheels on the bottom side. –  Jun 27 '16 at 14:44
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    @Marc There are LHD and RHD versions of the same car model. I don't think many manufacturers take the hassle to also flip the fuel hatch, the fuel pipe, the tank, parts of the trunk's interior, maybe the exhaust &c. So basically no real connection between steering wheel and fuel hatch. – JimmyB Jun 27 '16 at 14:45
  • @JimmyB as you said "many manufacturers don't take the hassle". So manufacturers that build cars primarily for the right driving world will have the fuel hatch on the left side, no matter where the wheel will be (see Audi, BMW, Mercedes..). Japanese manufacturers mostly have the hatch on the right side (see Honda, Mitsubishi...). There are counter examples, I know, but as I already said in general the hatch is on the non-driver side. – Marc Jun 27 '16 at 15:01
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    Both cars are Japanese manufactured, Mazda and Toyota and RHS. A newer Toyota car I have seen has its fuel hatch on left side as well, but that older model has it on the right. – Cem Kalyoncu Jun 27 '16 at 15:53
  • Did anyone else think of the correct answer because the source mentioned Geometry Olympiad? – Sinstein Jul 01 '16 at 18:04

5 Answers5

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Judging from the mirrors' angles, the driver sits on the right side.

Added an image for clarification:

enter image description here Not really geometrically perfect, but I hope it provides a little more understanding ;-)

Carl Löndahl
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    This answer is correct but would be better with some more explanation. – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE Jun 27 '16 at 01:42
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    I've added a sketch to the solution now, hopefully providing a better undstanding. – Carl Löndahl Jun 27 '16 at 06:40
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    Is there any model of car which has an adjustable mirror housing? As far as I can tell, once cars were built with casing around the mirror, the casing locked into it's operating position and the mirror (invisible in the picture) moved within the case. – Roland Jun 27 '16 at 19:11
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It's on the right side from the perspective of how the image appears. In other words, if you rotated the image 180°, it would be on the left.

As far as determining whether it would be normal for the US or the UK, that can't be determined from the image.

User4407
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    how would rotating the car change where the wheel is? – njzk2 Jun 27 '16 at 02:46
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    @njzk2. The steering wheel is closer to the front of the car than to the rear. Since the front of the car is on the right, the steering wheel must be on the right. If you rotated the car so the front was on the left, the steering wheel would have to be on the left as well. – User4407 Jun 27 '16 at 04:33
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    I think you mean reflected the image. If you rotated it, the steering wheel would remain on the same side of the car, just as it would if you spun a car around physically. (A reflection isn't something we can perform with an actual object; we can only do it with a mirror.) – jpmc26 Jun 27 '16 at 08:13
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    @jpmc26 The question doesn't ask which side of the car the steering wheel is on. If you rotate it, the steering wheel would still be on the same side of the car, but it would also be on the left side since the front of the car would then be on the left side and the steering wheel is in the front of the car. – David Schwartz Jun 27 '16 at 09:19
  • @jpmc26. No, rotated was exactly what I meant to say. After rotating, the wheel would be on the left side of the image. It would remain near the front of the car, so if the front were to the left, the steering wheel would be toward the left. – User4407 Jun 27 '16 at 09:48
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    the same argument can be made: the question does not ask which side of the image. – njzk2 Jun 27 '16 at 12:40
  • @njzk2. Exactly. It can be said to be on the right in two different senses. Therefore, there are no grounds to reject either answer without appealing to unfounded assumptions. – User4407 Jun 27 '16 at 12:50
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    @DavidSchwartz and Pé de Leão: That would only make sense if the question was tagged with [tag:lateral-thinking]. It makes more sense to take the question in the usual sense one speaks about the side of the car a steering wheel is on. – jpmc26 Jun 27 '16 at 13:20
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    the puzzle is not about where in the image the steering wheel is, its about where in the car the steering wheel is. No matter how much you rotate anything, the left side of that thing will always be the same half of the object. Your left side does not change to your right side just because you turned around. If your assumption was correct, then the question itself would indeed be impossible, but Occams razor strikes again because its much simpler to assume Left and right are relative to the CAR, and not you. – Ryan Jun 27 '16 at 16:30
  • @jpmc26 It doesn't say "side of the car". In fact, it seems to go out of its way to avoid saying that. So why does the usual sense of "side of the car" matter? – David Schwartz Jun 27 '16 at 17:14
  • @DavidSchwartz For two reasons: 1) Not taking it in the usual sense makes this question uninteresting. 2) Since the question isn't overly specific about it, the typical usage is a safer assumption. – jpmc26 Jun 27 '16 at 17:41
  • @jpmc26 There is no typical usage for "Find out on which side is the steering wheel - left or right". That appears to be someone going out of their way to avoid typical usage. And as for which version is more interesting, that's pretty subjective. Making a lot of the slight difference in mirror angles seems uninteresting to me. – David Schwartz Jun 27 '16 at 17:47
  • @DavidSchwartz It is an obvious reference to the fact that this differs between countries and depends on which side of the road the country drives on. That is pretty much the only normal context for talking about which side of the car a steering wheel is on. – jpmc26 Jun 27 '16 at 18:05
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    @jpmc26 The question is not talking about which side "of the car" the steering wheel is on. It seems to go out of its way not to use that common phrase with a well understood meaning. When there's a common, obvious expression for something and someone chooses to use a different expression, you have to consider that they did so deliberately. – David Schwartz Jun 27 '16 at 18:06
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    I declare the question ambiguous enough to upvote this answer. – John Jun 27 '16 at 19:37
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I think its on right side by seeing the mirror image and the image angle

user349915
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Right, side mirror angle of right side is more than that of left & also on the top of picture a text " car" is there that shows the driver seat is in right side

user25714
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right. according to wing mirrors.

noirvelle
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