So we're doomed to walk in circles for the rest of our lives. Sick.

Well I think its because for us humen visual stimulation is very important for our motorfunction. Perhaps some trainign would make a lot of difference. i think a blind person would be able to walk in a straight line, simply because hes trained to function without visual stimulation.

Beautiful animation

Any more videos in this series? Loved the animation

There are to options. You can walk streight line (wich is a ideal case, nothing is absolute) or you can make a turn (you can't follow a ideal streight line, you will make turn)-> so you will go in some sort off loops in any case, the only question is how big the loops will be.

This clip somehow reminds me of Robert O'Hara Burke (Leader of Australian explorers who were the first Europeans to cross Australia from south to north). He was in charge of explorer team, but in the same time he could not find the way home after drinking in the bar, nevertheless, the bar was next to his home.

That's what happened to me when I "Failed" my field sobriety test. Hell, I wasn't even blindfolded. Hiccup

well, maybe it's simple, human anatomy does not have 100% vertical balance, eg. right side of the body is slightly heavier than the left side...

Fascinating; Going to try it in a field with my mates - set them walking whilst filming them

I bet it's because the earth is spinning - like water in a flushed toilet.

they should have asked a blind guy to do the test! Maybe he can walk straight?

#2, #10...i don't think so.

Even he is blind, he uses other points of reference, like sound, or he uses his stick...or dog :-).

I think he will walk circles as othere people as well..

I think it's cuz one leg is stronger and/or a bit longer than the other.

for a second there i thought they were the mythbusters Adam and Jamie.

i and 2 friends walked on the top of a mountain (almost a flat surface) once and it became night we walked in a circle (to the right) we ended in the same position 2 times, and later on the trip we saw city light even then we startet walking a little bit to the right, its very weird.

Definitive evidence that our right nuts our bigger than the left.

#11 yes so he learns to use other sensorial stimuli to help his motorfunction. But when you take away the main sense of a person hes not able to learn right away to use other senses to help him to walk in a straight line.

They walked perfectly straight.. never heard that the earth is moving?

oh my god....we are all DRUNK!!!!

Nice video! As a first thought on the cause, it could be related to the Coriolis effect - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect

For the case of walking, noticed that most of them go right or in clockwise. This implies that right-handedness is a possible factor. Lets say the person is not blindfolded how can he/she move in a straight line? Normally, I believe, people use visual coordination or other form of reference to maintain a straight heading. But without some form of reference it is not possible to maintain a straight route, after all walking is a constant forward falling motion. Another way to explain this phenomenon: Lets say the person travels in a straight line for the first 30m, at the 30.01m he changes direction by 0.01 degree from his straight heading and continues walking forward perfectly. It is easy to see that eventually he will miss his destination by a few kilometers if the destination is a few hundred kilometers away. For human, when we walk, it is very easy to change our heading, with every steps, by a few degrees. Without reference to correct our heading, it is not strange for the mind to perform the basic heuristic to begin identify a possible reference. Noticed that the basic method to identify one's heading is by turning in one direction. In the case of a right-handed person, it is possible that turning right is more preferable than left. This is a simple explanation based on instinct and haven't consider much in term of physical aspect.

this guy above me talks way tooo much blah blah blah

it's because we cant focus on one thing

I blindfolded a girl once, she wasn't straight afterwards and the fun ended.

This is the kind of snotr videos i like!

uhm..vid repeat, admins?

Theres a vid somewhere on snotr about a blind dog that has learned to use sound (his bark) bouncing off surrounding objects to get around. Sorry dont have link.

very funny video and interesting

So what about blind people? Can't they walk straight without seeing where they're going? I think I read somewhere that the reason we can't go straight is because one side of the body is heavier than the other, the imbalance moves us ever so slowly towards one side.

When someone is born blind, he can walk in a perfect straight line

This explains why Moses wandered in the desert for 40 years......

so nothing is ultimately straight?