Because I'm a math nerd...I was thinking about the physics of a standing Christmas tree.
You hear stories of people's trees falling all the time. My best tip is to put a large piece of metal (like a wall span) where the tightening bolts meet the trunk. That way, when the trunk gets soft from watering, it doesn't dig into the trunk and allow the tree to slant (and ultimately fall over).
Anyway, this got me to thinking about the math behind the toppling of the tree. Given a 7-8 foot tree that might be about 50 pounds:
I remember just enough stuff about force vectors to know there's a guesstimate for both of these questions, but I am on the financial side of math these days.
What say you engineers and physicists?
Merry Christmas!
You hear stories of people's trees falling all the time. My best tip is to put a large piece of metal (like a wall span) where the tightening bolts meet the trunk. That way, when the trunk gets soft from watering, it doesn't dig into the trunk and allow the tree to slant (and ultimately fall over).
Anyway, this got me to thinking about the math behind the toppling of the tree. Given a 7-8 foot tree that might be about 50 pounds:
- What is the angle of acceptable lean before the tree falls?
- What is the amount of weight necessary to add to the base to allow for an acceptable lean, without the tree falling over?
I remember just enough stuff about force vectors to know there's a guesstimate for both of these questions, but I am on the financial side of math these days.
What say you engineers and physicists?
Merry Christmas!