The Height of Irish Technology

An opinion was once expressed to me, in a rather disparaging tone, that the three-legged stool and the Titanic were Ireland’s greatest contributions to technology.  Initially defensive, I soon realized that there was nothing to defend. 

The three-legged stool is an intellectually elegant invention.

Consider the fundamentals: 

Design Requirement – A seat that can be deployed on an uneven surface, remain stable, and not be subject to movement.

Design Principle 1 – Short legs to ensure the center of gravity of the supported person does not extend beyond the limits of the seat – at least for angles that may be commonly encountered on a rough floor.

Design Principle 2 – A seat that is a limited plane, parallel to the plane defined by the bottoms of the three legs.  The bottoms of the legs represent three non-collinear points which can be orientated to find three matching points on the uneven floor.

By using the minimum number of points needed to define a plane, the stool’s design maximizes the probability of matching the seat’s plane to one defined by three points on the uneven floor.  (And you thought the design was unsophisticated.)

The three-legged stool is an ancient design, developed by people who were stymied by lack of education and poverty.  Clearly such circumstances do not preclude an innate understanding of mathematical principles.  Traditional design often reflects an organic understanding of geometric and scientific principles – an understanding which was derived, I presume, from direct observation of the natural world. 

This thought might give you pause and make you question the ability of our next generation to understand and interpret what lays beyond the screen of their smart phones.  I feel confident in their abilities, however.  They are an inquisitive bunch.

As for the Titanic, the naval architect did a fine job.  The fault lay with a certain Englishman who believed the nonsensical claims of unsinkability and piloted the ship into an iceberg.

Follow The Numerate Ninny on FaceBook, Instagram or LinkedIn or at: https://thenumerateninny.com