this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2026
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

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  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
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    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
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With circular motion, you can spin threads, mill grain, move a wheel forward, drill holes, bring water upwards, generate electricity spinning turbines, create gravity, defeat gravity. It's just too OP

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[–] Undoobitably@fedinsfw.app 2 points 5 days ago

It's our infinity glitch

[–] CapuccinoCoretto@lemmy.world 52 points 1 week ago (9 children)

Also upgrade uranium to weapons grade.

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[–] Vanth@reddthat.com 35 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Wait'll you hear about levers, wedges, incline planes, and screws!

(Websearch simple machines)

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Screws are just wandering inclined planes

Yeah that just sounds like rotation and inclination with extra steps.

[–] ltxrtquq@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think this is the first time I've seen someone make a contraction out of "till."

[–] isleepinahammock@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm partial to simply using "til" myself.

It's funny because I hear "wait'll" often as the predominant colloquialism to express "wait until." Must be a regional dialect thing.

[–] plc@feddit.dk 30 points 1 week ago (1 children)

ITT: OP reinvents the wheel.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 20 points 1 week ago (2 children)

For my next trick, I shall reinvent fire

[–] ilillilillilillililli@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Not to be overly pedantic, but fire is naturally occurring. Humans only invented ways of utilizing it.

I love pedantry. Just to kick it up a notch, I'd like to point out that people are a part of the natural world, therefore our technology is a part of nature. For example farms don't seem natural, but I think most people would agree that ants are natural. Some ant colonies engage in farming, and we accept that as a part of nature.

[–] Zarobi@aussie.zone 4 points 1 week ago

Wheels in the form circular rocks are also naturally occurring. Plenty of human "inventions" are actually just finding useful applications for existing stuff. Like penicillin from mold. And organic iPhones from the Apple tree.

[–] Daxter101@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Simplifying what the others said, humans discovered Fire. But they did invent the campfire, the torch, the cooking fire, the pyre, and a bunch of other "fires" (as tools).

So, the "invention of fire" makes sense just fine, I think

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[–] regdog@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago (3 children)

If you are male than you can make some sweet circular motion in the shower as well.

[–] rekabis@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

In the shower?

Nah, man. I do that to my wife as a power move when I step out of the shower.

[–] regdog@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I thought everyone in this community was in the shower 24/7

[–] Siethron@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

I think you have it reversed

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[–] nightlily@leminal.space 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Wait till OP discovers the lever.

[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

He'll lift the world!

[–] cybervseas@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

Add a cam or rack and pinion and oh baby you got a stew goin.

[–] Krudler@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

Smoke some herb and get ready for this, all motion is curved, there's no such thing as straight motion. The summation of movement can be said to be linear.

[–] StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] Luccus@feddit.org 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

Spiral power, you say?

Edit: it is Junji Ito's Uzumaki.

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[–] AnarchoEngineer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I will say conservation of angular momentum really feels like a cheat code sometimes. “This thing can’t be tipped because it’s spinning too fast”

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 3 points 1 week ago

Orbital sanders trip me out every time. I want to lift it off and put it away sideways like any other tool but orbital sander goes "lol dude you can't do that".

[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

An engine lathe is one of the only standalone machine tools that is capable of recreating itself in its entirety.

And not only can it recreate itself, with the correct tooling setup it can recreate itself in a more precise, accurate manner than it itself is built.

[–] ExperimentalGuy@programming.dev 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Not OP, and I'm not sure how the lathe itself does it. But it shouldn't be surprising that it's possible to create more precise tools from less precise tools. Otherwise it would be impossible for us to ever create tools more precise than our own hands and fingers.

[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Basically, any moving mechanical system has slop/clearance in it. When operating machine tools this is called "backlash", aka how far you have to turn an adjustment handle before it creates a real change in machine position. Any and all moving mechanical systems will have some non-zero amount of slop.

Skilled operators can compensate and "take out" this backlash so that each cut runs perfectly true. Basically as long as you take a "sloppy" machine and always adjust it to run against the very edge of its "sloppiness" zone, you get high precision... I have used lathes at my old college with probably 0.100" or more of backlash and was still able to turn parts that had less than 0.001" of runout.

And obviously once you get to computer controlled machining centers the backlash compensation can be baked into the program to get perfectly true cuts each time.

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[–] charokol@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 week ago

If you use Circular Motion with both fists perpendicular to your chest in a vertical orientation, with both fists maintaining a 180° offset from the other’s circle, you can look like an old-timey boxer

[–] Klear@piefed.world 7 points 1 week ago

It can be vicious tho

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

As an old-school Zangief main, I concur.

[–] MelodiousFunk@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 week ago

curses in D-pad

[–] thenextguy@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago (4 children)

OP?

Original Poster?
Old People?
...

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] thenextguy@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 week ago

Oblate sPhereoid

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Objectively Phantastic

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[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

This sounds like something a character from Dr. Stone would be amazed about. XD

But yes, I agree.

[–] peopleproblems@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Physics used Angular momentum!

It's super effective!

[–] bryndos@fedia.io 3 points 1 week ago

centrifugal force xkcd

[–] mavu@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 week ago

Ahh, good times, back when i still did weed.

Maybe I should start again.

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