Three fingered tripod!

[Stuuullaaa]

jeffwaynefan said:

I like the scene when the foot smashes down onto the car. Note that alongside the car is the lamp post that somehow remains intact even though it is in the way of the falling foot.

;D ;D seen that ;D

[BrutalDeluxe]

chrisoakley said:

I want to know how the Tripods still worked after a million years? If I leave my car standing for more than a week the battery ends up dead and one of the tyres goes flat.

Plus this must be really old technology for them, so how do they know how they work? Stick us in a car from a hundred years ago and we would soon crash it into a wall or thrash the engine into the ground trying to get it up to 20mph.

I realise that they are a more advanced race but they're still human... no hang on...

I was thinking the same thing! My car is 32 years old and I certainly couldn't conquer the world in it. I can barely get it to limp around the block ;D

Perhaps the glyphs on the side of the tripod are the instructions on how to use it (make sure tripod is in neutral before starting). The lightning also may serve a dual purpose, transfering the "pilot" into the tripod and jump-starting the stupid thing.

[timeship2]

I once read a science fiction novell many years ago about triple redundancy called Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke and Gentry Lee. It was about an alien cylindrical world that entered our solar system where everything was designed using triplicate symmetry.

[Lensman]

refugee said:

But 3 is the magick numper, it appears in loads of things naturally, clover leaves for example and it is a number that sticks in the head, i.e. if something is said 3 times it is more likely to be remembered, or a 3 word phrase. Structurally it is sound because all 3 legs support one another and thus all 3 toes do the same whilst allowing the tripod to traverse tough terrain.

Three is indeed a "magic number". Look at the old oral tradition tales; many fairy tales have 3 iterations of the same situation/scene in them. For instance, Rumplestiltskin is asked 3 times to spin straw into gold. "What I say three times is true." The Holy Trinity. In Greek Myth, the goddess Hecate has three aspects: the young maiden, the mature mother, the old crone. These are just a few examples; many, many others can be found.

If the aliens used three legs for esthetic reasons, it would make sense. Wells' described the Martians' machines as looking more like animals than machines, so it would seem for them artistic design was very important. Spielberg's aliens seem much less interested in esthetics; the Tripods do move in an animalistic fashion, but their appearance is decidedly mechanical.

And although 3 legs is stable for standing, as soon as you lift one leg up to take a step it becomes unstable. Six legs is actually the best for walking stability, as you can lift half your legs to take a step and still have a stable tripod on the ground. That's the way insects walk. With a computer assist and the proper leg design (the stiff, splay-legged Jeff Wayne design is entirely wrong) there's no reason the Tripods couldn't get along with only 3 legs-- after all, we humans get along with only 2-- but it's incorrect to say 3 is the best number of legs for a walking vehicle.

[Lensman]

timeship2 said:

I once read a science fiction novell many years ago about triple redundancy called Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke and Gentry Lee. It was about an alien cylindrical world that entered our solar system where everything was designed using triplicate symmetry.

One of my favorite books! But Rendezvous with Rama was by Clarke alone. The vastly inferior sequels were written with Gentry Lee.