{{Short description|Pivoted board used for play}} {{Other uses}} [[File:Francisco de Goya - El Balancín (Philadelphia Museum of Art).jpg|thumb|250px|Seesaw in 1792 painting by Francisco de Goya]] thumb|250px|A set of conjoined playground seesaws
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== [[File:Fragment of an Attic red-figure krater depicting two adolescent girls on a see-saw.jpg|thumb|Fragment of an Attic red-figure krater by the Leningrad Painter dating between c. 470 and c. 460 BCE, currently held in the Museum of Fine Arts, depicting two adolescent girls playing on a see-saw]] Mechanically, a seesaw is a lever which consists of a beam and fulcrum with the effort and load on either side.<ref name=mech>{{cite book | last = Benedek |first = George Bernard | title = Physics, with Illustrative Examples from Medicine and Biology: Mechanics | year = 2000 | publisher = Springer | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-387-98769-9 | pages = 379}}</ref>
==Varieties== thumb|left|250px|Seesaws are manufactured in creative shapes, designs and a range of fun bright colours to appear attractive to a child.
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. thumb|right|A seesaw in a children's playground
Seesaws are also manufactured in shapes designed to look like other things, such as airplanes, helicopters,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-07-22 |title=Teeter Totter vs Seesaw – Is There a Difference? - Gardening Latest |url=https://gardeninglatest.com/teeter-totter-vs-seesaw/ |access-date=2022-08-12 |website=gardeninglatest.com |language=en-US}}</ref> and animals. thumb|left|Makeshift seesaws are used for acrobatics
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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://backspace.com/notes/2003/08/gaviotas.php|website=Social Design Notes|date=9 August 2003|title=Gaviotas}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://mingo.info-science.uiowa.edu/~winter/engineering.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207162602/http://mingo.info-science.uiowa.edu/~winter/engineering.html|archive-date=7 February 2012|title=Engineering|postscript=,}} excerpting {{cite book|last=Weisman|first=Alan|title=Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World|location=White River Junction, Vermont|publisher=Chelsea Green Publishing|year=1998}}</ref>
In 2019, a set of seesaws were installed spanning the US-Mexico border fence between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/jan/19/pink-seesaws-across-us-mexico-border-named-design-of-the-year-2020|title=Pink seesaws across US-Mexico border named Design of the Year 2020|website=The Guardian|date=18 January 2021}}</ref>
==Name origin and variations== [[Image:Seesaw1902.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Girl hanging from a seesaw, Chicago, Illinois, 1902]] 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.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}
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''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Norfolk Glossary |url=https://friendsofnorfolkdialect.com/portfolio-items/norfolk-glossary/#T |website=Friends of Norfolk Dialect (FOND) |access-date=19 October 2024 |language=en}}</ref> 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."<ref name="History of the English Language">{{cite book | last = Drout |first = Michael D.C. | title = A History of the English Language (Course Guide) | url = http://www.recordedbooks.com/courses_pdf/UT088.pdf | year = 2006 | publisher = Recorded Books, LLC | isbn = 978-1-4281-1730-3 | page = 98 | access-date = 2010-04-12}}</ref>
[[File:Seesaw Hokkaido-2016-8-15.webm|thumb|Seesaw in Hokkaido, Japan]]
== Popularity == In the early 2000s, seesaws were removed from many playgrounds in the United States, citing safety concerns.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Otterman|first=Sharon|date=2016-12-11|title=The Downward Slide of the Seesaw|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/11/nyregion/the-downward-slide-of-the-seesaw.html|access-date=2020-08-29|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> However, some people {{Who|date=May 2024}} 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.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Tierney|first=John|date=2011-07-18|title=Can a Playground Be Too Safe?|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/science/19tierney.html|access-date=2020-08-29|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
==See also== * Neolttwigi * Teeterboard
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == {{Spoken Wikipedia|date=2020-05-24|En-Seesaw-article.ogg}} * {{Commons category-inline|Seesaws}} * {{Wiktionary-inline|teeter-totter}}
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Category:Playground equipment Category:Simple machines