The car on the wall

0:06 At a museum in Cleveland, Ohio,

0:08 there is a model of a German car affixed to the wall with a thin metal bar.

0:14 Visitors find this both surprising and amusing.

0:17 Why?

0:18 And one more time.

0:19 At a museum in Cleveland, Ohio,

0:21 there's a model of a German car affixed to the wall with a thin metal bar.

0:25 Visitors find this both surprising and amusing.

0:29 Why?

0:30 I had a classic, is this genius or am I gonna...

0:34 Yeah.

0:34 (laughs) Okay.

0:36 My first thought, this is the— what the first seatbelts look like.

0:39 It was just a thin metal bar across the lap.

0:42 It sounds...

0:43 Tom Scott's just not doing any reaction,

0:47 which I don't know if it's like— I'm waiting for y'all to say things!

0:50 A f— Oh, I thought it was like a fakeout,

0:51 where you're gonna tell Tom he's wrong again.

0:53 I'm not gonna do that twice in two shows!

0:56 Or maybe I am, and I'm just setting up the expectation now that I won't.

1:00 Ah, the mind games.

1:02 Okay.

1:02 My first thought was...

1:06 it...

1:06 the metal bar separates the east and west of the car.

1:11 (Tom Lum and Caroline belly laugh) Wait,

1:15 I'm interpreting this completely differently.

1:17 I thought it was affixed to the wall,

1:20 but the bar was the thing holding it up there.

1:24 Is that— am I interpreting that wrong?

1:26 Yeah, you've got the right...

1:28 Oh, okay.

1:28 Yeah, that's right.

1:29 I decided that the metal bar was over the car.

1:32 Are we— was it— is it standing on the metal bar?

1:35 Would a car wear a metal bar this way or this way?

1:38 (Tom Scott and Caroline laugh) Yeah.

1:40 The metal bar goes all the way through the car.

1:43 Through?

1:44 Through the car?

1:45 Through the car.

1:46 It is affixed to the wall.

1:48 Is this a Phineas Gage car?

1:50 (wheezes) Is this the car Phineas Gage...

1:52 (laughs) It's...

1:57 Sometimes I start a sentence with like, 'the', 'it's', 'or'...

2:02 and I don't actually have the rest of the sentence.

2:04 I just hope that something will come afterwards, and I have nothing!

2:08 Nothing!

2:09 That reminds me of, it's just like...

2:12 Hah!

2:13 (guests laughing) Okay, I'm bringing this back.

2:17 Is it like...

2:18 I'm picturing a car on a flagpole.

2:22 And it's like not through passenger side to driver's side.

2:26 It's through like boot through to front windshield,

2:30 and it's just like hanging there like that.

2:32 How are the rest of you picturing it?

2:34 I was picturing it from boot to— from boot to nose.

2:38 Yeah.

2:39 Ah?

2:40 Not passenger...

2:42 window through window on the side.

2:44 No.

2:44 I don't know why.

2:45 Interesting.

2:46 Is it sticking— Yeah.

2:47 I was imagining the car sticking directly out of the wall.

2:50 So, sorry.

2:51 Does...

2:52 I'm so lost.

2:53 Is this— I'm trying to rotate this metal car in my mind.

2:56 (laughs) Is the metal bar part of the car,

2:58 or is it like something that a car— the rod went through it,

3:03 and it's like a famous car for that reason or something like that?

3:06 The metal bar is not part of the original car.

3:09 Tom, what orientation are you seeing this in?

3:13 Eh...

3:13 goes through it lengthwise down the middle, as if it was an axis describing yaw.

3:20 Okay.

3:20 (Caroline and Ella snicker) No, in this case, it would be...

3:23 Well actually, I'm not sure— That's roll,

3:26 the way you just moved your hand there.

3:28 Yeah, you're right.

3:29 You are right.

3:30 Yaw is flagpole.

3:32 Yaw is side to side, and you're right with that– that one word.

3:37 The model is mounted vertically on the wall.

3:39 So really, I was right.

3:41 Yeah, so for video watchers, I was wrong.

3:43 For audio listeners, I was right.

3:45 Yeah, exactly.

3:46 (laughs) The model is mounted vertically on the wall.

3:50 It's mounted with its wheels on the wall?

3:52 Yeah.

3:53 I see.

3:53 Yep, and that— Ohhh!

3:54 That metal bar goes through the roof and through the floor and into the wall.

4:00 It's like if a car was like a fly on the wall, and then you skewered it.

4:05 Had not processed that that was an option, to be honest with you.

4:08 Yeah.

4:08 I don't know why I went for the least

4:11 reasonable way to stick this car to a wall, which was just hanging.

4:14 I don't think there's a common way.

4:17 Is it a flagpole?

4:19 Is it the American flag?

4:21 Ooh.

4:21 Ooh.

4:22 Metal.

4:23 Through a German car, you know.

4:25 It's not.

4:26 Ooh.

4:27 Tom, when you said it's like a fly on the wall...

4:31 Closer than you might think.

4:33 Oh, is it pinned like a butterfly, like an insect is pinned?

4:36 (gasps) Yes, it is.

4:37 Is this art exhibit?

4:39 Wow!

4:39 Holy moley.

4:40 Whoa.

4:41 Is it a Beetle then?

4:42 Yes, it is.

4:43 (guests cheering) Caroline!

4:44 Got it!

4:47 That's the one-two-three, baby!

4:49 (laughs heartily) Yes.

4:50 This is the Cleveland Museum of Natural History who,

4:54 inside a display case with genuine beetles pinned on the display case,

4:59 have taken a tiny model of a Volkswagen Beetle and pinned it into the display.

5:05 You know what, hadn't processed that it wasn't a car-sized car.

5:09 You were all thinking, I think...

5:11 I said model of a car.

5:12 I did not specify the scale there.

5:15 Yeah.

5:16 (laughs) The Lateral book is out now!

5:20 Just click on the link to get your copy.

5:23 Caption+ by JS* caption.plus| @caption_plus