SOLUTION: Can you explain why a three-legged stool is often more steady than a four-legged one? If you have a four-legged one, is it possible that all four legs might touch the floor at the

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Question 1194898: Can you explain why a three-legged stool is often more steady than a four-legged one? If you have a four-legged one, is it possible that all four legs might touch the floor at the same time? Is this true for a three-legged tool? Relate this to geometric situations involving three points and a plane and four points and a plane.
Found 3 solutions by Boreal, ikleyn, Alan3354:
Answer by Boreal(15235) About Me  (Show Source):
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Three points define a plane. A fourth point now has four different groups of 3 points and therefore four different planes (4C3).
Mathematically, there would be a single point (without dimension) where all 4 legs could touch simultaneously, but essentially this would not happen.

Answer by ikleyn(52786) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
.

It is even more interesting, that despite of this reasoning, most people use 4-legged chairs for sitting . . .

By the way, on which chair do you seat while writing your posts ?



Answer by Alan3354(69443) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Chairs have five (5) "legs" now, an OSHA requirement.