QWERTY effect shows we’re partial to words from one side of the keyboard

Q. Drinking for humans is easy using gravity to pull the fluid down our throat to our stomach. It’s trickier for quadrupeds that have to lower their heads to the ground and somehow transport the fluid up. In the case of dogs and cats, the tongue is key, dogs scooping and cats splashing fluids up. Elephants of course just suck with their trunks, like a drinking straw. But how do giraffes, with their extraordinarily long necks, meet the challenge?

A. To drink, giraffes spread their front legs apart and lower their necks far enough to submerge their lips. But with necks about 8 feet long, they have to raise the water about 6.5 feet to get it to where gravity can do the rest. Based on field observations, zoo videos and mathematical models, physicists Philippe Binder and Dale Tayler (writing in “Physics Teacher”) conclude that giraffes create a mechanical “plunger” pump.

Here’s how: Starting with jaws closed, they open their submerged lips (the “intake valve”) and close their epiglottis at the opening of the throat. Then they open their jaws to suck water into their mouth, close their lips, open their epiglottis (the “discharge valve”), and close their jaws, forcing water up into their throat (esophagus). This process is repeated until the esophagus is full. The final phase involves the giraffe lifting its head up to its normal position, above the body, so that the water flows down to the stomach, “almost certainly gravity–assisted.”

Q. It’s been called the “quirky effect” but more formally termed the “QWERTY” effect.” You’ve probably been affected by this one many times yourself. Do you know what it is?

A. It may be hard to believe, but studies have found that people “have more positive emotional associations with words that have a higher ratio of letters from the right side of the QWERTY keyboard — those from “y,” “h” and “n” onward,” says Chris Baraniuk in “New Scientist” magazine. Not only did English, Dutch and Spanish speakers rate more positively those words with a higher right–side letter ratio — even made–up words like “ploke” or “pleek” — but baby names with a similar ratio also were more popular after QWERTY keyboards became common in the 1960s.

In one current study, researchers David Garcia and Markus Strohmaier examined millions of English–language product names and book and film titles appearing on Amazon, YouTube, Rotten Tomatoes and others, and found the QWERTY effect all over the web. But as they point out, that doesn’t mean the products will be more successful.

Still, says American University’s Naomi Baron, the correlation is fascinating though not clear cut: Is it because words with a higher right–side ratio are easier to type or rather that more vowels appear on that side? Suggests Baron, “We don’t put emotions into most of our consonants, we put them into our vowels.”

Q. New York Yankees fans and baseball lovers everywhere, how did famed manager Billy Martin come by his rather storied name?

A. No, he was not born William Martin but rather Alfred Manuel Martin Jr., says Dan Lewis in his book “Now I Know.” When Billy was quite young, his father “skipped town … and around the same time his maternal grandmother started calling him ‘Bello’ — the Italian masculine for ‘beautiful.’” Because his mother hated her ex–husband, she adopted “Billy” as her young son’s nickname and kept his true name from him. Reportedly, it wasn’t until Billy started school and his teacher called out “Alfred Martin” from the roster that he came to realize — after ignoring her at first — that he and this “Alfred Martin” were one and the same.