I see a proliferation of potholes along the roads along the South Coast, which were not there four months ago.
I also see that most repair patches are rectangles or squares which obviously have ninety degree corners. This fact is a weakness in the process of road repair, as this is the weak spot in the road repair patch.
Why do you think aircraft windows are circular or oval? By virtue of this design, no excessive stress is directed to a particular point but rather evenly spread over the whole.
Case in point being the Comet jet liner. There were two crashes of this airplane and investigation showed that structural failure originated at the corners of the square windows.
(Also, man being so inventive, found that a bayonet with a triangular profile made a wound that struggles to heal, as two sides would knit but not the third.)
In light of this information, perhaps our road engineers should form the tar patches with rounded corners. Maybe they will last longer and be less likely to crumble, deteriorate and ultimately fail!
TREVOR BARNES
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like the South Coast Herald’s Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
