
Ready for lift-off
There was a question around the grandfather and his preference for a three-legged stool. Not my grandpa. A generic grandfather, the sort who gets caught up in a question on a school maths test.
A question which puzzled housemate and soon-to-be qualified maths teacher Sean. Wouldn’t the four-legged armchair be more comfortable? “Not if it wobbled”, I suggested. “Three points define a plane, so no wobble. Centre your weight within the triangle and the stool won’t overbalance, though it might slope.”
My early energising repeats the lesson.
Notes: Weaving shuttle, chopsticks and kitchen scourer. There was a series of simplifications, concluding in a simple and stable tripod.
More energizing objects.