The most amazing balancing act ever was when Nik Wallenda of the famed tightrope walking family crossed the gorge of Little Colorado River Navajo Tribal Park near the Grand Canyon.
The 2-inch cable stretched about ¼ mile and was 1500 ft above the ground.
Much less awe-inspiring are the balancing acts all of us face every day. Both of us try to live a balanced life, eat a balanced diet, and try to find that perfect balance of toil and family life, and our cars must have a balanced frame and suspension method with perfectly balanced tires to avoid uneven tire wear and reduced fuel economy. Another locale where balance is vital is in the compressor component of Heating and Air Conditioning units where huge fan blades help get rid of the heat from inside the house… Some noises are expected when the component comes to life and the fan begins to rotate, and when the fan is out of balance, those noises turn into rattles, vibrations, and clanging noises if a misaligned fan blade impacts other metal components in the housing. The wonderful news is that the Heating and Air Conditioning compressor fan can be really cleaned and re-balanced. One trick is to tape a dime to a single of the fan blades to add a bit of excess weight. Then, a series of comparison tests can be run using gravity to determine any differences in blade weights. Some tweaking and bits of well-placed duct tape should restore the fan’s balance and allow it to run quietly. That is until your amateurish balancing efforts fail, and you end up with a disfigured compressor fan. That is when you can call your qualified Heating and Air Conditioning worker who can simply substitute the fan and balance the component professionally without those strategic duct tape additions.