The "magical formula" for stairs.
If this rule isn't followed when building stairs, then it feels uncomfortable and more accidents will actually happen there.
In easy terms, it says: 2x riser + tread = average step lenght, usually 63cm.
this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2026
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Oh man I hate it when stairs are not built to the proper ratio. It feels so weird.
I'm curious how this compares to eras before this formula was normalized and if this is universal or more so just a matter of keeping things the same so people get used to them.
I know of a few cases in religious buildings where stairs were designed to have a mystical effect. In Angkor Wat, for example, the stairs have a steep and tall tread pattern. Commoners weren't used to them so they'd be exhausted, but the local monks were used to them so they could ascend and descend with ease.
Visit any old city in the UK (York and Edinburgh for example) and a lot of passages between streets have steps with uneven heights.
When you're expecting it, its fine, you take extra care. But when its a modern building and they've fucked it up you really notice
When I did a tour of Edinburgh Castle, the guide said they'd do that deliberately to trip up invaders.
Same thing for castles/forts in Portugal.
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[it's] a modern building and they’ve fucked it up you really notice
How about the stairs leading up from a subway stop?
My house is over 100 years old and all the damn stairs are different.
Yup. Can confirm from Canada. To be fair, they usually got them close to right here.
What part of the world? The house I grew up in is 110 years old and all the steps are even. Central Europe.
New England. When I was looking at houses I went in a few of these as that’s basically a lot of the market here, and most of them had at least one set of stairs I found myself uncomfortable on. Mine aren’t too bad, just narrow and short, but I’m short so it doesn’t bother me really. The attic is the weird one because it’s this set of spiral wooden stairs that leads into a really nice, large, fully finished attic. It could absolutely be another useful space…except…the stairs start out in a bedroom closet.
You have an effin secret lair and complain. Some people, I swear
Yeah. The novelty probably wears off, but from here that sounds neat.
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In german and english, the comma in numbers is swapped. So the number 123.45 in german would be written as 123,45 while ironically, the thing that we used to separate thousands from hundreds is also swapped. So one-thousand-four-hundred would be written as 1,400 in english but as 1.400 in german ...
On top of that, you would pronounce 678 as six-hundred-seven-ty-eight in english ... guess what it is in german:
Sechs-hundert-acht-und-sieb-zig (literally six-hundred-eight-and-seven-ty)
i'm actually trying to change this point specifically because it irks me ... but i am sadly alone with it.
And even more fun is that some German speaking countries do it like the US. Like Switzerland for example....
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Microwaves can cause water to become super heated and explosive upon touch.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_Gateway_Protocol
I'm surprised we don't have global internet outages more often.
DNS constantly has weird little issues and attacks, same with ARP. Meanwhile, BGP just keeps on chugging along in the background, ignored and unappreciated, day in and day out.
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An example from my field of expertise: Mixing different kinds of metals in wet environments causes the less noble one to corrode.
The phrase "sacrificial anode" comes to mind
That reminds me, I need to get a new one for my hot water tank. I've lived here 6 years, you're supposed to change them around 5.
It can be the difference between a water heater lasting 7 years and lasting 30.
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Yeah. The worst part is that a lot of engineers and technicians don't fully understand galvanic corrosion when specifying how to attach two different metals together.
The Dunning-Kruger Effect.