Lever: Fallen Tree as a Lever

Index Entry

If we find any exception

We no longer have a scientific generalization.

Scientific generalizations are extraordinarily meaningful,

As for instance was the discovery

Of the principle of leverage,

Which probably came about as follows:

Occasionally humans who have penetrated

Wilderness forests

Encounter trees fallen slantwise

Across their line-of-sight path

In their chosen direction of travel.

"It is obviously quicker

to climb over the fallen tree

Than to try to walk around it.

They find it logical

to walk along the top of the fallen tree

when it leads in the direction of preferred travel

Or toward the next opening in the forest.

As they walk along the horizontal trunk

They feel the tree to be progressively sinking."

Citations

C09380