Thoughts destined to be washed away by the tides of life. |
I was trying to unscrew the lid on the jar that I keep tea in and it was impossible to move. How could that be? I was the one who put the lid on in the first place. And I have noticed this problem before. How is it that I can tighten things so much that I can’t re-open them? So, I wondered about that, and why I obviously can apply greater torque in tightening the lid than I can in unscrewing it. So, I went looking for information. Seems the screw was first invented by a friend of Plato, Archytas of Tarentum, and put to good use by Archimedes. No one knows who decided that screws should tighten in a clockwise direction, but it seems that it obviously emerged as the standard because most people are right-handed and they can apply more strength going in a right-handed direction, or clockwise. Now, the problem is that I can’t decide if I should screw lids on less tightly just so I can open them more easily. The whole idea of a tight lid is to keep nasties out and food freshness in. Who wants a flat bottle of Coke? But one of life’s little mysteries suddenly made sense to me. It won’t help me open a jar or anything, but it might make me feel less weak and helpless. It's all my own fault if I can't open the jar. |