What if The Fonz had chosen to express his approval not with his thumb but through semaphore, the language of flags?
Potsie: Fonzie, you cool with this?
Fonz: [places red flag at his side and yellow flag at 45-degree angle to ground; then shifts arms so red flag is parallel to ground, and yellow flag is at a 135-degree angle.]
Ralph: You still got it, Fonz!
FILED UNDER: thought experiments: not just for physicists anymore