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The fix-the-wobbly-table theorem

This video is about the absolutely wonderful wobbly table theorem. A special case of this theorem became well-known in 2014 when Numberphile dedicated a video to it: A wobbling square table can often be fixed by turning it on the spot. Today I'll show you why and to what extent this trick works, not only for square tables but also general rectangular ones. I'll also let you in on the interesting history of this theorem and I'll tell you how a couple of friends and I turned the ingenious heuristic argument for why stabilising-by- turning should work into a proper mathematical theorem.

English
  • Originally Aired July 28, 2018
  • Runtime 11 minutes
  • Network YouTube
  • Created July 28, 2018 by
    Administrator admin
  • Modified July 28, 2018 by
    Administrator admin