In layman’s terms please, no geometry/engineering jargon.
In: Engineering
It all comes down to how the forces are distributed. The easiest comparison is with a square. Shear forces (side-to-side) on a square put force into the sides, which then transfer that force into the joints at the corners. That lever action puts immense stress on the corners, so they are likely to break.
Triangles, however, distribute force much better. If you push sideways into the point of a triangle, the force will travel more or less straight down the sides and down into the ground. The joints aren’t doing the heavy lifting, so a triangular structure is a lot stronger.
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