things for which I have no intuition

... include "angular momentum" (yes, despite having sat on a spinny chair and done the thing; yes, despite having worked through all the maths multiple times; yes, this is awkward for several of my flavours of science) and "ratchet straps".

The latter is increasingly inconvenient given the existence of my terrible tent-based hobbies.

So! A has been threatening me with the concept of a Tiny Ratchet to add Enrichment to my Environment for a while, and a few days ago (courtesy of the car getting a spa treatment) a tiny ratchet did indeed wind up on the sofa, where my feet normally go.

It has spent the entirety of those days Not Biting Me even though I squinted at it suspiciously, so this evening we moved on to the next step of "staring intently at all the moving parts while fiddling", with Supervision from a Responsible Adult.

So far I think it is going better than angular momentum? I am potentially willing to grudgingly concede the existence of ratchet straps. The tiny baby (0.28 tonne) ratchet will continue to live on the sofa so I can intermittently pick it up and continue fiddling suspiciously. Maybe I will manage to internalise enough of the workings to feel slightly more confident being handed the ten-tonne ratchets in a few weeks' time...