Return to my Logic pages
Go to my home page
© Copyright 2000, Jim Loy
Besides being a cliche, perhaps related to "the
last straw," the straw that broke the camel's back is a simple, but
thought-provoking puzzle. Imagine a camel with a comfortable load of straw on
its back. Keep loading straw, and eventually you will have broken the camel's
back. If you loaded up the camel one straw at a time, then there was one straw
that broke its back.
Of course it is not that simple. There is a whole range of weights that is dangerous for the camel. Maybe it can carry such a weight for a while, then just a little jolt, just a little relaxation of muscles, just a little time, just a little breeze, and ouch, broken back or some other injury. So we cannot blame one straw.
We can even imagine enough straw to smash a camel flat. If we need a new cliche, "the straw that smashed the camel flat."