¶ Lever: Fallen Tree as a Lever
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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
- BRAIN & MIND, pp.136-137 May '72
