in elementary school, my teachers would say, “if you need a straight line use a ruler,” but how did they get a ruler to be straight? it must have come from a machine or something, but how did people get the first one?
one way I’m imagining it is if you stretch out a string taut you can get a straight line, but how was this applied to everything else that uses straight lines?
is there something in nature that is perfectly straight?
In: Engineering
The simple answer to where straight lines come from is that, if you take three stones and alternate rubbing them against each other, eventually you will get three perfectly flat surfaces. Join two points on one surface, you will get a straight line. Use the stones as a reference for building the first ruler.
Here is a link to a GREAT video about exactly where measurement came from, even asks the question about straight lines. Chanel is called Machine Thinking
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