We’ve all been sat drinking a beer only to realize that the table wobbles irritatingly. But while a piece of folded paper can solve the problem for a few minutes, there is a better solution—and it uses some simple math.
Matthias Kreck from the University of Bonn explains in this video how simply turning the table a little, clockwise or anticlockwise about where it sits, will solve the problem. Don’t believe it? Kreck provides the proof too. Still don’t believe it? Try it out next time you’re in a bar.
It may not the most sociable of solutions to the Wobbling Table Problem, but it’s certainly the easiest—and now, perhaps, the geekiest, too. [Numperphile]
