Seesaw
A seesaw (also known as a teeter-totter) is a long, narrow board supported by a single pivot point, most commonly located at the midpoint between both ends; as one end goes up, the other goes down. These are most commonly found at parks and school playgrounds.
Mechanics
Mechanically, a seesaw is a lever which consists of a beam and fulcrum with the effort and load on either sides.[1]
Varieties
The most common playground design of seesaw features a board balanced in the center. A person sits on each end, and they take turns pushing their feet against the ground to lift their side into the air. Playground seesaws usually have handles for the riders to grip as they sit facing each other. One problem with the seesaw's design is that if a child allows himself/herself to hit the ground suddenly after jumping, or exits the seesaw at the bottom, the other child may fall and be injured. For this reason, seesaws are often mounted above a soft surface such as foam, wood chips, or sand.
Seesaws also are manufactured in shapes designed to look like other things, such as airplanes, helicopters,[2] and animals.
Seesaws, and the eagerness of children to play with them, are sometimes used to aid in mechanical processes. For example, at the Gaviotas community in Colombia, a children's seesaw is connected to a water pump.[3][4]
In 2019, a set of seesaws were installed spanning the US-Mexico border fence between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez.[5]
Name origin and variations
Seesaws go by several different names around the world. Seesaw, or its variant see-saw, is a direct Anglicisation of the French ci-ça, meaning literally, this-that, seemingly attributable to the back-and-forth motion for which a seesaw is known.[citation needed]
The term may also be attributable to the repetitive motion of a saw. It may have its origins in a combination of "scie" – the French word for "saw" with the Anglo-Saxon term "saw". Thus "scie-saw" became "see-saw". Another possibility is the situation of the apparent appearance, disappearance, and re-emergence of the person, seated opposite one's position, as they, seemingly, "rise" and "fall", against a changing, oscillating background - therefore: "I see you", followed by, "I saw you".
In the northern inland and westernmost region of the United States, a seesaw is also called a "teeter-totter." According to
Both teeter-totter (from teeter, as in to teeter on the edge) and seesaw (from the verb saw) demonstrate the linguistic process called reduplication, where a word or syllable is doubled, often with a different vowel. Reduplication is typical of words that indicate repeated activity, such as riding up and down on a seesaw.
In the southeastern New England region of the United States, it is sometimes referred to as a tilt or a tilting board.
According to
Popularity
In the early 2000s, seesaws have been removed from many playgrounds in the United States, citing safety concerns.[8] However, some people have questioned whether or not the seesaws should have been removed, indicating the fun provided by seesaws may outweigh the safety risk posed using them.[9]
See also
References
- ISBN 978-0-387-98769-9.
- ^ "Teeter Totter vs Seesaw – Is There a Difference? - Gardening Latest". gardeninglatest.com. 2022-07-22. Retrieved 2022-08-12.
- ^ "Gaviotas". Social Design Notes. 9 August 2003.
- ^ "Engineering". Archived from the original on 7 February 2012, excerpting Weisman, Alan (1998). Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World. White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing.
- ^ "Pink seesaws across US-Mexico border named Design of the Year 2020". The Guardian. 18 January 2021.
- ^ teeter-totter listing in TheFreeDictionary.com
- ISBN 978-1-4281-1730-3. Retrieved 2010-04-12.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-08-29.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-08-29.
External links
- Media related to Seesaws at Wikimedia Commons
- The dictionary definition of teeter-totter at Wiktionary