The Science of Wobbly Tables
NEW SCIENTIST |
In this year’s holiday edition of New Scientist, I report the definitive proof that math — even the kind of math Euclid would be proud of — can make this world a better place. No longer will we lean on our pic-nic tables having to fear the nefarious spillage of our wine: Mathematicians and physicists have conjured up a fool-proof method to stabilize wobbly tables, and it always works. They have the mathematical proof of that.
My hope is that some day mathematicians will also find ways to solve — or at least explain — another one the world’s tragic geometric inconsistencies: Why the pieces of those Ikea bookshelves never seem to fit together.










