The Seven Theories of 'Pear Shaped'

Extract from the Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pear_shaped ...

1. Some aircraft engines become distorted (pear-shaped) in the event of failure.
2. Early biplane aircraft buckled into a pear-shape when they crashed, especially stalling on take-off.
3. The phrase refers to the shape of a hot air balloon when it collapses.
4. In statistics, when the shape of a normal distribution widens, it becomes less of a spike and more of a dome-shaped distribution with flanged edges (like the top half of a pear). Thus extreme outcomes that were very unlikely before are now much more likely, and unexpected events may well occur.
5. In glass blowing it describes a failed circular blown vessel. If over heated the glass becomes too fluid and distorts under gravity as it cools, resulting in a pear-shaped vessel. This was particularly important with early experiments with cathode ray tubes, where creating a large spherical glass vessel was necessary. Blowing such an object was a challenge and often 'went pear shaped'.
6. It refers to the shape of a pregnant or obese woman.
7. It refers to the shape of the Earth, a (very slightly) lopsided ellipsoid

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1. A FAILING AIRCRAFT ENGINE

'It's all gone pear shaped!' said the pilot, as he engaged in a losing battle with the joystick, in an attempt to bring the plane in safely to land.

2. A CRASHED BIPLANE

Needless to say, the plane crashed.

3. A COLLAPSED HOT AIR BALLOON

'If only I'd taken the safer, more relaxing option of travelling by hot air balloon,' he said, as he crawled from the wreckage of the plane.

It was then that he spotted the collapsed hot air balloon entangled in the branches of the only tree on the island.

4. A WIDENED 'NORMAL' DISTRIBUTION

'How unlikely is that?!' he said.

5. A FAILED 'CIRCULAR' BLOWN GLASS VESSEL

After he had brushed himself down and checked that all his limbs were still working, he decided to examine the balloon. He climbed the tree and carefully peered inside the basket. He saw nothing but a half-eaten sandwich and a palm-sized compass, whose glass casing had, it seemed, distorted in the heat, thus rendering it virtually unreadable. Then he heard a moan from several feet away.

Focused as he was on his own predicament, he had failed to notice the woman, crawling away from the tree and the entangled balloon therein. She was holding onto her belly. At first he had presumed she was obese and had stomach cramp from the physical trauma of eating and then crashing her balloon; but then he realised she must be¦

6. A PREGNANT OR OBESE WOMAN

'Pregnant!'

She turned to look at him, clearly anguished and in some agony.

'How can you travel in your condition?!' he said.

7. THE SHAPE OF THE EARTH

'I was determined to see more of the world before I bring my child into it,' she said.

'Fair enough,' he said, as this seemed a very logical explanation.

'My water's broken!' said the pregnant woman.

The Pilot and the Balloon Lady had come together under very strange and difficult circumstances. A bond quickly formed between them. He was happy to help in the delivery and raising of her child until they found a way off the island.

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