News
Jack Webb
Aug 21, 2018
The 'pivot' scene from Friends is quite possibly one of the most memorable from the entire series.
It stands out more than when Ross gets his teeth whitened to an extreme level.
The scene stands out because it's your typical 'moving house' trope, which pretty much everyone reading this will have experienced at some point.
The horror of struggling to try and fit a bed frame through a door that's too narrow, or a washing machine that won't make it downstairs, is objectively funny to watch and all too relatable.
In the episode, Ross buys a new sofa for his apartment, but refuses to pay for the delivery cost, so it's up to him to get the sofa up a flight of stairs.
Enlisting the help of Rachel and Chandler, they attempt to force the sofa upstairs, but to no avail.
Well, thanks to the keen eye of a mathematician, she's revealed how this should've been a simple feat.
According to SpareRoom, data science consultant Caroline Zunckel has analysed the famous 'pivot' scene in depth to solve the problem with the help of maths. She said:
By applying Pythagoras' theorem to the estimated measurements of Ross's sofa in a vertical position and dimensions of the stairs, I was able to establish that it would have been possible to get the item upstairs.
He would also have to factor in this equation:
Angle of vertical tilt (T) = 44.15064 -11.94274xWS (Width of the Stairwell) + 8.69119xWC (Width of the Couch) + 3.65961xLC (Length of the Couch).
For those who don't speak 'maths', Caroline is saying that Ross should have spent less time screaming pivot and instead focus on tilting the sofa.
Here's a handy and colourful guide to show you how it would work:
Picture:
There you have it, another good thing ruined by maths. Thanks, maths.
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