science

Seesaw

Seesaw is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Seesaw rather than just read about it. In short: A see saw (also sometimes known as a teeter-totter in North America) is a long, narrow board supported by a single pivot point, most commonly located at the midpoint between both ends; as one end goes up, the other goes down. These are most commonly found at parks and school playgrounds.

Key takeaways

Seesaw belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Seesaw to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Seesaw from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A see saw (also sometimes known as a teeter-totter in North America) is a long, narrow board supported by a single pivot point, most commonly located at the midpoint between both ends; as one end goes up, the other goes down. These are most commonly found at parks and school playgrounds.

Mechanics

Mechanically, a seesaw is a lever which consists of a beam and fulcrum with the effort and load on either side.

Varieties

The most common playground design of seesaw features a board balanced in the center. A person sits on each end, and they take turns pushing their feet against the ground to lift their side into the air. Playground seesaws usually have handles for the riders to grip as they sit facing each other. One problem with the seesaw's design is that if a child allows themself to hit the ground suddenly after jumping, or exits the seesaw at the bottom, the other child may fall and be injured. For this reason, seesaws are often mounted above a soft surface such as foam, wood chips, or sand.

Seesaws are also manufactured in shapes designed to look like other things, such as airplanes, helicopters, and animals.

Seesaws, and the eagerness of children to play with them, are sometimes used to aid in mechanical processes. For example, at the Gaviotas community in Colombia, a children's seesaw is connected to a water pump. In 2019, a set of seesaws were installed spanning the US-Mexico border fence between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez.

Name origin and variations

Seesaws go by several different names around the world. Seesaw, or its variant see-saw, is a direct Anglicisation of the French ci-ça, meaning literally, this-that, seemingly attributable to the back-and-forth motion for which a seesaw is known. The term may also be attributable to the repetitive motion of a saw. It may have its origins in a combination of "scie" – the French word for "saw" with the Anglo-Saxon term "saw". Thus "scie-saw" became "see-saw". Another possibility is the situation of the apparent appearance, disappearance, and re-emergence of the person, seated opposite one's position, as they, seemingly, "rise" and "fall", against a changing, oscillating background - therefore: "I see you", followed by, "I saw you". In the northern inland and westernmost region of the United States, a seesaw is also called a "teeter-totter." According to linguist Peter Trudgill, the term originates from the Norfolk dialect word tittermatorter. A "teeter-totter" may also refer to a two-person swing on a swing seat, on which two children sit facing each other and the teeter-totter swings back and forth in a pendulum motion. Both teeter-totter (from teeter, as in to teeter on the edge) and seesaw (from the verb saw) demonstrate the linguistic process called reduplication, where a word or syllable is doubled, often with a different vowel. Reduplication is typical of words that indicate repeated activity, such as riding up and down on a seesaw. In the southeastern New England region of the United States, it is sometimes referred to as a tilt or a tilting board. According to Michael Drout, "There are almost no 'Teeter-' forms in Pennsylvania, and if you go to western West Virginia and down into western North Carolina there is a band of 'Ridey-Horse' that heads almost straight south. This pattern suggests a New England term that spread down the coast and a separate, Scots-Irish development in Appalachia. 'Hickey-horse' in the coastal regions of North Carolina is consistent with other linguistic and ethnic variations."

Popularity In the early 2000s, seesaws were removed from many playgrounds in the United States, citing safety concerns. However, some people have questioned whether or not the seesaws should have been removed, indicating the fun provided by seesaws may outweigh the safety risk posed using them.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Seesaw

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Seesaw claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Seesaw before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Seesaw ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Seesaw

In research: Seesaw appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Seesaw in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Seesaw is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Playground equipment, Simple machines, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Seesaw outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Seesaw in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Seesaw means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Seesaw out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Seesaw in simple terms?

Why does Seesaw matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Seesaw?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Seesaw.