Who Needs to Walk When You Can Levitate · Web viewA wheel-chair’s axle connects the...
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www.mathsandcomedy.com Ciarán Mc Ardle Who Needs to Walk When You Can Levitate? I was drawing Joe Swanson, a Family-Guy character, voiced by Patrick Warburton, the lead role in the horrifically awful situation “comedy,” Rules of Engagement. Page | 1
Transcript of Who Needs to Walk When You Can Levitate · Web viewA wheel-chair’s axle connects the...
www.mathsandcomedy.com Ciarán Mc Ardle
Who Needs to Walk When You Can Levitate?I was drawing Joe Swanson, a Family-Guy character, voiced by Patrick Warburton, the lead role in the horrifically awful situation “comedy,” Rules of Engagement.
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www.mathsandcomedy.com Ciarán Mc Ardle
Figure 1: Peter Griffin’s Handicapable neighbour, Joe Swanson. I draughted this using a fine-liner liquid-ink pen and water-colours
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www.mathsandcomedy.com Ciarán Mc Ardle
I was etching away, when, I noticed something peculiar:
Figure 2: No axle to connect Joe Swanson’s wheels to his chair.
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www.mathsandcomedy.com Ciarán Mc Ardle
The Oxford Dictionary of English defines an axle thus:
axle /'aks(ǝ)l/
noun. a rod or spindle (either fixed or rotating) passing through the centre of a wheel or group of wheels.
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The term ‘axle’ is related to the term ‘axis:’
Figure 3: The axis of a wheelchair would consist of a freely rotating cylinder. The cylinder’s axis runs through its centre. An axis is an imaginary line about which a plane, or a solid – in this case, the above-pictured cylinder – can rotate. The term ‘cylinder’ actually comes from the Ancient-Greek noun, ‘kúlindros,’ which means ‘roller.’ The cylinder rolls about its axis at its centre.
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The above definition of ‘axle’ makes mention of a wheel’s centre. It would be useful for us to review the anatomy of man’s oldest invention:
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Figure 4: A Wheel. The wheel consists of a tire on its outside; a rim on its inside; a hub at its centre; spokes emanating from the hub, or centre towards the rim; and nipples, which connect the spokes to the rim.
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Figure 5: Here we may observe our cylindrical axle connected to the centres, or hubs, of both wheels. A spoke confers tensile strength to a wheel. Tensile strength is a topic for another article!
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A wheel-chair’s axle connects the wheels of the mobility apparatus to the mobility apparatus itself, in such wise that the axle can still rotate. Were the axle fixed, and not able to rotate about its centre, then the wheels would not be able to go round and round.
Swanson’s wheelchair is not attached to an axle at all, which must mean that he maintains his seated position, above the ground, by way of defying gravity!
It is not to be supposed that I have simply erred in my portrayal of Joe Swanson:
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Figure 6: The image upon which I based my drawing, Figures 1 and 2 above. Pretending to be disabled is a pretty low act at the best of times, but when possessing the ability of levitation, it is inexcusable. Imagine if Clark Kent went about in a wheel chair. Come to think of it, that might be a much better disguise than his merely wearing glasses.
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Glossary:axle /'aks(ǝ)l/
noun. a rod or spindle (either fixed or rotating) passing through the centre of a wheel or group of wheels.
axis /'aksɪs/
noun. (plural. axes /'aksiːz/ )1. an imaginary line about which a body rotates.
[GEOMETRY] an imaginary straight line passing through the centre of a symmetrical solid, about which a plane figure can be conceived as rotating to generate the solid.
an imaginary line which divides something into equal or roughly equal halves, especially in the direction of its greatest length.
2. [MATHEMATICS] a fixed reference line for the measurement of coordinates.
3. A straight central part in a structure to which other parts are connected.
The above definitions are from:
Oxford University Press. Oxford Dictionary of English (Electronic Edition). Oxford. 2010
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Post Scrīptum:As regards the glossary’s definition of what an axis is:
[GEOMETRY] an imaginary straight line passing through the centre of a symmetrical solid, about which a plane figure can be conceived as rotating to generate the solid.
A rectangle comprises 4 vertices, or corners, and 4 line segments that connect these corners together.
If we take a particular line segment and the two vertices that connect to it, and designate it as our axis, then by rotating the plane rectangle 360º we can generate a cylinder:
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Figure 7: If we designate Line Segment |CD| as our axis, then by rotating the above plane rectangle 360º, then we can generate a cylinder.
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