5 Sep
2006
5 Sep
'06
2:11 p.m.
Quoting Jason Holt <jason@lunkwill.org>:
I thought I saw an article in the popular press within the last year or two in which a mathematician noticed his table wobbling, and found that by rotating it he could get all 4 legs stable. So he investigated it and wound up proving that it's possible to do so for any surface. I'm not turning anything up on google, though.
Apparently old problems neither die nor fade away (saying from back then). This "theorem" was running around math students back in the early fifties, as I recall. Doubtful that it was new even then. Had something to do with the theorem of the mean, I think. - hvm ------------------------------------------------- www.correo.unam.mx UNAMonos Comunicándonos