- Joined
- Dec 22, 2012
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This morning I got an lesson on the mysteries of the twin tower collapses.
I was taking my morning shower. I have a long handled shower brush, actually two, one the long hand broke and so I can't hang it by the little loop and can't reach as far either. But the bristles are still good so continue to use it. It's place it on the ledge/top of the tun which is also use as a shower. Sometimes I use this one and others times not. It's older and the bristles are softer so it's better for scrubbing my face for example.
So I pick up the brush and wet it and then get some soap on it to lather up for scrubbing and do the scrubbing and rinse it under the shower and place it back on the tub ledge and resume with the long handled brush for my back. Lo and behold the brush slips from the tub edge after 15 or 20 seconds and ends up in the tub. How did this happen?
Perhaps some water from the shower head came down upon it exerting just enough force to somehow move it laterally and dislodge it. Possible but I don't think so.
I began to imagine that the forces holding the brush perched on the ledge were not enough to move it in any way. It was just like the glass perched on the edge of my desk. One could say in balance. So if it was perhaps just a single drop which changed everything and caused the brush to slip over the edge. Well for starters the brush was wet, perhaps a bit soapy and slippery and this would lesson the force needed to displace it. But the point is that the static condition was clearly very close to changing and then gravity would rule. The top surface of the tub was also rounded and probably a bit wet and likewise not the best surface to balance or support anything. But this clearly was a situation which WAS stable, looked stable and IS stable all the time... the brush lives in this spot until I use it for showering and then replace it. So wet created a very close to failure condition where perhaps... gravity was able to exert enough force in perhaps the right place to just tip it over to unsupportable and it slipped into the tub.
As I picked it up and placed in back in its home, I realized how much this was like the tops of the twin towers which just before they plunged were teetering just above the stable state and it wouldn't take much to change that into a top dropping. I suppose if I had very detailed video of the brush I would be able to see slight movement before release... the forces at work inside the brush. But I was showering and only had my imagination.
With the towers there was no visible BIG event that preceded the top drops. It was standing tall one sec and then it was descending and then soon after it was gone. Failures are often like that... stable until they are not.
I was taking my morning shower. I have a long handled shower brush, actually two, one the long hand broke and so I can't hang it by the little loop and can't reach as far either. But the bristles are still good so continue to use it. It's place it on the ledge/top of the tun which is also use as a shower. Sometimes I use this one and others times not. It's older and the bristles are softer so it's better for scrubbing my face for example.
So I pick up the brush and wet it and then get some soap on it to lather up for scrubbing and do the scrubbing and rinse it under the shower and place it back on the tub ledge and resume with the long handled brush for my back. Lo and behold the brush slips from the tub edge after 15 or 20 seconds and ends up in the tub. How did this happen?
Perhaps some water from the shower head came down upon it exerting just enough force to somehow move it laterally and dislodge it. Possible but I don't think so.
I began to imagine that the forces holding the brush perched on the ledge were not enough to move it in any way. It was just like the glass perched on the edge of my desk. One could say in balance. So if it was perhaps just a single drop which changed everything and caused the brush to slip over the edge. Well for starters the brush was wet, perhaps a bit soapy and slippery and this would lesson the force needed to displace it. But the point is that the static condition was clearly very close to changing and then gravity would rule. The top surface of the tub was also rounded and probably a bit wet and likewise not the best surface to balance or support anything. But this clearly was a situation which WAS stable, looked stable and IS stable all the time... the brush lives in this spot until I use it for showering and then replace it. So wet created a very close to failure condition where perhaps... gravity was able to exert enough force in perhaps the right place to just tip it over to unsupportable and it slipped into the tub.
As I picked it up and placed in back in its home, I realized how much this was like the tops of the twin towers which just before they plunged were teetering just above the stable state and it wouldn't take much to change that into a top dropping. I suppose if I had very detailed video of the brush I would be able to see slight movement before release... the forces at work inside the brush. But I was showering and only had my imagination.
With the towers there was no visible BIG event that preceded the top drops. It was standing tall one sec and then it was descending and then soon after it was gone. Failures are often like that... stable until they are not.
