high wire

Hi,

I was reading about tightrope walking. I learned that some high wire walkers use a bent pole with weights on the end. If there is enough weight and the weights are below the wire, then the walker doesn't need any more balance than if he or she were hanging from the wire. I knew this intuitionally, because I have seen a wheel on a cable with a weight below it and knew that there wasn't a risk of the wheel "loosing its balance". I didn't realize it in the case of the high wire walker. It is so interesting to me that a person can feel something without understanding it. It is intriguing, one's intuition.

Another interesting thing is how a high wire walker might carry a straight pole. What is interesting is that the straight pole lowers the walker's center of gravity. I assume it does this by shortening the walker. The walker isn't shorter necessarily, but is proportionally because the pole makes the walker wider. Gravity doesn't care about height, but does care about proportion? Wow, I guess that is right. That is so awesome. I always knew that proportion was important from the artistic standpoint, but I didn't know this.

Thank you for reading this whoever you are!

love braden