the.com/stairway
A machine for cheating gravity, one little victory at a time.
means A set of steps connecting different levels of a building, usually flanked by a handrail.
from A plain English compound: "stair" plus "way." The "stair" half traces back to Old English "stæger," tied to a Germanic root meaning to climb or mount — a cousin of the same family that gives us "sty" in the sense of rising up. "Way" is the ancient Old English "weg," a path or road. So a stairway is, quite literally, a climbing-road.
- ideal step
- Riser plus tread roughly equals one human stride
- spiral logic
- Castle stairs curved clockwise to favor right-handed defenders
- escher's revenge
- Penrose stairs climb forever yet go nowhere
- hidden danger
- Stairs cause over a million injuries yearly
- sacred ascent
- Many temples stack steps as a path toward gods
stairway to heaven — led zeppelin's 8-minute song from 1971, one of the most played rock songs ever
spanish steps rome — 124-step monumental stairway in rome's piazza di spagna, built 1723-1725
montanita stairway okinawa — 99 stone steps on okinawa island leading down to a secluded beach