YADDA Boston

Yet Another Door Distribution Again, this time at the Summer Shack Restaurant in Boston. Not many patrons grab the door near the handle, not many reach it much higher. Most grab the door, and wear away its paint, at a comfortable, likely shoulder height. A bell-shaped frequency distribution results. Thanks Laura.

YADDA - Donut Bakery

Yet Another Door Distribution Again. This time on a bakery door just east of Cambridge, Maryland. Here we see a skewed frequency distribution of scratches, perhaps from keys, with greatest concentration around the door handle with progressively fewer scratches extending higher up the door. Many fewer scratches are below the door. Perhaps the handle is too low as customers handle their keys and hold or open the door, while also eating the delicious donuts the bakery sells.

YADDA on TV

Seen on an episode of Major Crimes on TNT, a wear pattern of hand placement in holding a door open. Not many hands are placed low, many more higher, and not many are placed still higher. The frequency of hand wear shows us, yet again, the bell-shaped pattern of wear. Yet Another Door Distribution Again.

YADDA New York's Penn Station

Yet Another Door Distribution Again. Doorway to a train track at New York's Penn Station showing the two halves of nearly circular bell-shaped curves of wear. But from what? Most likely the edge of Amtrak luggage carts pushing the door open. The carts seem to push equally on each door, with perhaps a slight bias for the left side. Compare this to the bookstore doors or the Dulles airport doors from earlier posts.

YADDA BBQ

Yet Another Door Distribution Again this one from Sonny's BBQ in Sanford, Florida near my late parents home where I grew up. On this door, we see a thin stretch of wear just above the metal latch handle. This is the result of many hands opening a door, with few hands pressing on the left, few on the right with many more pressing in between and wearing away the brown paint on the door. This results in a bell-shaped wear pattern we've seen often on doors.

YADDA: There when you need them

This past week I gave a talk "Normal Distributions: Photographic Confusions" at the University of Maryland. On the way to the lecture room I pointed out this bell-shaped distribution of wear on a stairway door. Yet Another Door Distribution Again.

YADDA: No Time for Lefties

Here is a bell-shaped pattern of, what appears to be, only right-hand thumb placement on the handle of a door entering a gas station convenience store, (Yet Another Door Distribution Again, late summer vacation find).

YADDA Frank Lloyd Wright

Yet Another Door Distribution Again (YADDA)

We stayed for two nights, this past Fourth of July weekend, in the Haynes House, a Frank Lloyd Wright designed Usonian home in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Completed in 1952, it has seen much use. Here is a view of one of a pair of cabinet doors in the master bedroom. It shows the pattern of wear that we have seen often, more in a central area around the door knobs, with less wear extending toward the two extremes, a bell-shaped pattern of wear and use, (Thanks Nick).

YADDA Garage Gate

Yet Another Door Distribution Again (YADDA), this one on a gate in a garage stairwell showing a skewed distribution of hand placement opening the door. We've seen and described such patterns often,  (YADDA in our list of labels). Since opening a hinged door is easiest with a long lever arm, more wear is shown near this gate's right-hand edge with less towards the door's pivot, resulting in this skewed pattern of wear.

YADDA lunch-time

Yet Another Door Distribution Again. Here is a side entrance door to a building on our campus. During the academic year I pass through these doors several times a week to go to lunch.

Only just recently have I taken notice of the wear pattern on the doors. This is the handle of the right hand door of two. It has the most wear, being opened primarily with right hands. Most wear is at a comfortable height to grab. Less wear can be seen higher as the top of the door handle ends. But there is also less wear lower on the handle as fewer hands grab the handle at a less comfortable height. Lower still there is little or no wear. There it is difficult and awkward to open the door with such a low grab. Top to bottom down the door handle we see less wear, more wear, and then less wear. What accumulates is a bell-shaped pattern of use and wear.

YADDA belly

Yet Another Door Distribution Again. This time we have the wear pattern on the inside of the doors at Potbelly's sandwich shop in Rockville, MD. This is the typical pattern of people holding the door open to enter the shop. Their fingers wrap around the edge of the door. As is usual, more hands seem to have left their entry mark by opening the right-hand door (the left-hand door in this inside image). The most wear is shown at a comfortable height, perhaps shoulder-high or a little lower. There is less wear higher-up and also lower-down where it gets more awkward to hold the door open. There does seem to be a longer lower tail on this bell-shaped pattern of wear suggesting kids have also left their marks.

YADDA BAM!

Yet Another Door Distribution Again. A bell-shaped wear pattern displaying the frequency distribution of hand placement on the exit door of Book-A-Million in Columbia, Maryland.

YADDA Sears - Yet Another Door Distribution Again

Bell-shaped wear pattern on the exit door at a Sears store. Lots of wear in the middle, less on the right-hand edge. The distribution appears skewed to the right. Would we see more of a left-hand tail if the handle was bigger or does the door open better by pushing on it more to the left than to the right?

See another door distribution in our video here.

YADDA, Yet Another Door Distribution Again

Bell-shaped wear pattern on the door of Sackets Harbor Brewing Company, Sackets Harbor, New York.

YADDA: Yet Another Door Distribution Again

This is an edge-on view of an open door. Notice the wear pattern along the edge. Another bell-shaped frequency distribution of wear.

YADDA - Dulles Doorts

Yet Another Door Distribution Again.  This is an pair of automatic entry doors to the terminal at Dulles airport outside of Washington, DC. Although the doors open automatically as you approach, passengers pushing luggage carts ahead of them hit the bottom edge of the doors when they open too slowly. This leaves a distinctive wear pattern on each door. Most carts hit the same spot, some cause wear a little higher, some cause wear a little lower. This could be from different cart heights or different loads on the carts or from the slight dents in the door from the repeated bumpings, causing the carts to hit more off the center target. A bell-shaped frequency distribution is left behind. Most wear in the center less towards the extremes.