This article is about a three-legged piece of equipment. For other uses, see
Tripod (disambiguation).
A tripod is a portable three-legged frame or stand, used as a platform for supporting the
weight and maintaining the stability of some other object. The three-legged (triangular stance) design provides good stability against gravitational loads as well as horizontal
shear forces, and better leverage for resisting tipping over due to lateral forces can be achieved by spreading the legs away from the vertical centre.
Variations with one, two, and four legs are termed monopod, bipod, and quadripod (similar to a
table).
First attested in English in the early 17th century, the word tripod comes via
Latintripodis (
GEN of tripus),[1][2] which is the
romanization of
Greekτρίπους (tripous), "three-footed" (GEN τρίποδος, tripodos),[3] ultimately from τρι- (tri-), "three times"[4] (from τρία, tria, "three")[5] + πούς (pous), "foot".[6] The earliest attested form of the word is the
Mycenaean Greek𐀴𐀪𐀠, ti-ri-po, written in
Linear B syllabic script.[7]
Many cultures, including the ancient peoples of
China and
Greece, used tripods as
ornaments,
trophies, sacrificial
altars, cooking vessels or cauldrons, and decorative ceramic pottery. Tripod pottery have been part of the archaeological assemblage in China since the earliest Neolithic cultures of
Cishan and
Peiligang in the 7th and 8th millennium BC.[8] Sacrificial tripods were found in use in ancient
China usually cast in bronze but sometimes appearing in ceramic form.[9] They are often referred to as "
dings" and usually have three legs, but in some usages have four legs.
The Chinese use sacrificial tripods symbolically in modern times, such as in 2005, when a "National Unity Tripod" made of bronze was presented by the central Chinese government to the government of northwest China's
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to mark its fiftieth birthday. It was described as a traditional Chinese sacrificial vessel symbolizing unity.[10]
In ancient Greece, tripods were frequently used to support
lebes, or cauldrons, sometimes for cooking and other uses such as supporting vases.
Tripods are commonly used on machine guns to provide a stable mount for the weapon when firing.[11]
Tripods are generally restricted to heavier weapons where the weight would be an encumbrance. For lighter weapons such as
rifles, a
bipod is more common. However, in recent times
tripod saddles have become popular for precision rifle shooting sports, with the weapon placed in a
vise-like rest which is mounted to a
tripod head[12][13] or with the weapon mounted directly to the tripod head.
In
photography, a
tripod is a portable device used to support, stabilize and elevate a
camera, a
flash unit, or other
videographic or observational/measuring equipment. All photographic tripods have three legs and a
mounting head to couple with a camera. The mounting head usually includes a
thumbscrew that mates to a
female-threaded receptacle on the camera, as well as a mechanism to be able to rotate and tilt the camera when it is mounted on the tripod. Tripod legs are usually made to
telescope, in order to save space when not in use. Tripods are usually made from
aluminum,
carbon fiber, steel, wood or plastic.
The astronomical tripod is a sturdy three-leg stand used to support telescopes or binoculars, though they may also be used to support attached cameras or ancillary equipment. The astronomical tripod is normally fitted with an
altazimuth or
equatorial mount to assist in tracking celestial bodies.[14][15]
A
laboratory tripod is a three-legged platform used to support flasks and beakers. Tripods are usually made of
stainless steel or
aluminium and made light-weight for efficient portability within the lab. Often a
wire gauze is placed on top of the tripod to provide a flat base for glassware. Tripods are generally tall enough for a
bunsen burner to be placed underneath.[16]
^Wolfram, Eberhard.
A History of China. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 3rd edition, 1969. Cf. p.49 for illustration of Ancient bronze tripod found at Anyang.