Notes and queries

Why is walking round a museum so tiring? Relax, everything's going to be OK – probably; How to balance a windmill
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Child at the Natural History Museum Tring notes and queries
Walking round a museum doesn't actually involve much walking … a child at the Natural History Museum Tring. Photograph: Duncan Phillips/Alamy/Alamy

Why is walking round a museum more exhausting than going for a walk?

Walking around a museum tends not to involve much actual walking, but a lot of standing and pondering. Standing (especially at pondering angles) puts uneven stress on muscles, tendons and joints. When walking at an even/regular pace, we constantly and rhythmically flex our legs in "natural" ways, which is less tiring. Pondering also means we're using mental energy, producing a double-whammy of tiredness. Museum floors also tend to be extremely hard and smooth, reducing the variation and cushioning we experience in general walking – especially in the countryside.

Steve Rouse, Gee Cross, Ches

I enjoy walking and can go for miles without getting tired, but when I visited the Imperial War Museum at Salford Quays I was soon exhausted and dying to sit down. I get the same way when I'm walking along a busy street and have to keep stopping and starting. When I can walk at my natural pace, I'm fine; when this is disrupted, I'm not. Accompanying a friend who loves her shopping has the same effect.


I refer to this type of walking as the "supermarket shuffle" and it is indeed most tiring. I suspect the relative shallowness of breathing and concomitant lack of proper oxygenation of the muscles has something to do with it, together with increased load on relatively static joints. You need a good run afterwards!


It's not the walking. In a museum or art gallery, I'll bet you go into museum-attention mode. Observe the behaviour of other visitors. Think of your head and neck relaxed, floating at the top of your spine, balanced but not tensed. Feel the firmness of the floor under your feet and taking your weight. Unlock your knees; they won't let you down. Let them bend just a little to eliminate tension. Then forget the posers around you and look at what you've come to see. I haven't had museum feet in 15 years: Alexander Technique, lesson one.

Kerry Downes, York

Is everything going to be OK?

Yes indeed. There might be a few million years of rough house while things settle down on Planet Earth: it might even go on a bit longer (say a few billion), but eventually, as the universe cools, everything will settle into a peaceful (if chilly) void. No trouble at all. Relax, its only a matter of time.

Francis Blake, London N17

For most of us in the west, everything probably is going to be OK. However, that is only because people who think it might not be OK usually manage to do something about it. For example, the cold war nuclear arms race and the millennium bug could both have led to disaster in their different ways, but particular people solved the problems.

Today, climate change, the decline in bee populations and international terrorism are among the main worries. International terrorism is being managed, and scientists will probably save the bees. Climate change is particularly worrying, because by the time it has a serious impact on richer countries, the rise in global temperatures could be self-perpetuating: we need to take action, such as investing in geo-engineering, sooner rather than later.

So things should be OK, but only if we take timely action to make them OK.

Richard Mountford, Hildenborough, Kent

Dame Julian of Norwich, a 14th-century mystic, claimed God actually said to her:

All shall be well,

and all shall be well,

And all manner of things

shall be well.

So there!

Terence Oon, Burgess Hill, West Sussex


Jane Brown, Modbury, South Devon

Yes, eventually – old and knackered.

Malcolm Johnson, London SW16

If we start behaving responsibly, respecting the rights of others and … er … I guess that's a "No".

Nigel Grinter, Buffalo Grove, Illinois, US

Why do wind turbines have only three blades? Wouldn't four be more effective?

Further to the answers on 7 September, traditional windmills usually have an even number of sails. If one of them needs to be removed for repair, its opposite number is removed as well so that the mill remains balanced and can still operate when the wind is strong enough. This is obviously not possible with an odd number of sails.

Tim Lidbetter, Kingston upon Thames

Any answers?

How and when did Americans acquire the habit of cutting up their food with a knife in the right hand and a fork in the left in the usual way, then shifting the fork to the right hand to eat with?

Janice Taverne, London SW1

What does the "T" stand for when something "suits you to a T"?

Lizzie Hoskin, Chorlton, Manchester

Post your questions and answers below or email (please include name, address and phone number).

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