If you’re a fan of the iconic 90s sitcom “Friends,” chances are you remember the all-too-relatable “couch” episode.
It’s the kind of episode that’s all too easy to laugh along with, because we’ve all been there. Whether it was moving into your first apartment or a dorm room in college, practically every adult on the planet has found themselves acting as their own moving company only to realize just how difficult it is to get some of the more burdensome furniture upstairs.
Although Ross’s plight was met on the screen with resounding cries of “we’ve been there, dude!” from viewers, though, this mathematician decided to debunk his situation once and for all.
Turns out, Ross and his friends totally could have gotten that couch upstairs. All they needed was the Pythagorean theorem!
Helpfully, the U.K.-based housing blog “SpareRoom” provided a full step-by-step diagram of how Zunckel used the high school math formula to prove Ross and his friends totally stayed in an unnecessary bind.
This doesn’t change the fact that moving on your own, without any paid professionals on board, tends to be an absolutely miserable undertaking.
But now, instead of just yelling “we feel you, dude!” when you watch that scene, you know exactly what to call out: 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).
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