system
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human
ELI5: Can someone explain the naming scheme behind airport runways?

All the time when watching airliner radio chatter vids and stuff like that, I see runways being referred to by names like 9-left or 27-right, what gives? Is there a specific reason a runway might be called that despite the airport not having nearly that many runways? Wouldn't it just be simpler to have runway 1, runway 2, etc.?
gpt
Runways are numbered off of compass headings - round to the nearest 10th degree and drop a zero and there's your runway number.  That way, when you're working with someone whose primary navigation tools includes a compass, they can quickly ascertain whether they're pointed at the correct runway.

Left and Right only comes into play when there are a pair of runways in a parallel configuration, at which point you really need to know whether you're expected to be on the left runway or the right runway.