IT IS an irritation matched only by the summer blowfly.
The turkey has been sliced, the bubbly poured and the relatives have taken their seats, ready to tuck into the Christmas feast.
Then, thanks to a wonky floor, the table wobbles, upsetting the wine. Inevitably, someone scrambles for a beer coaster or napkin to stuff under the wayward table leg.
But it is all unnecessary, an international team of mathematicians, including two Australians, has calculated.
To beat the wobbles, just rotate the table. Eventually, you will find a position that keeps the table stable.
"It almost always works," said Burkard Polster, a member of the team and a senior Monash University mathematics lecturer.
Working with a former colleague from Monash, Dr Marty Ross, and mathematicians from Germany and New Zealand, he has just completed a 20-page study of the simple solution.
"We have been fiddling around on this for a better part of a year," said Dr Polster yesterday, describing the maths behind the solution as "very cute".
The researchers didn't discover the magic of rotation: it has been known for several years. But they did break new ground by exploring the technique's limits.
There had always been "a fuzziness about it", Dr Polster said.
To his team's delight, they found that turning a wobbly table worked on even very rough surfaces, including the backyard.
"If you have continuous ground that doesn't rise between any two points by more than 35 degrees, it will always work," he said, although there might be a tilt. "The only requirement is that the legs of your table form a perfect rectangle."
"The principle behind it is called intermediate value theorem," said the mathematician, who caused a stir three years ago when he identified which of the millions of different ways of lacing a shoe were the most effective.
The latest findings are also useful for anyone struggling to replace a light globe, as the technique works just as well for wobbly chairs.
Dr Polster said such research showed maths could solve many ordinary daily problems.
From Sydney Morning Herald
By Richard Macey
December 7, 2005
