Tad McGeer proved that you don’t need knees to walk downhill. But he also proved that downhill walking is nicer with knees. He further proved that you don’t need a brain if all you want to do is walk down a slope. Nor do you need much else. Just a pair of legs – call them stand-alone legs, if you like – will do it.
McGeer proved these things mathematically. Then he proved them in a way that non-mathematicians seem to find more persuasive….
So begins this week’s Improbable Research column in The Guardian.