Yertle the Turtle in Graphs
Dr. Seuss in graphs: a wiser Yertle the Turtle knows emperor strength peaks at a moderate empire size, and stops stacking turtles before the tower turns unstable.
Transcript
"I'm Yertle the Turtle! Oh marvelous me! I'm king of this pond, and of all that I see. I make all my subjects climb up in a stack. Each turtle stands on the last turtle's back. But if there's one lesson that history teaches, a king always falls when a king overreaches. So I'll stack them no higher, although I am able. Good tyrants ensure that their tyranny's stable." [Graph: "emperor strength" vs. "empire size," an arch from "too small" to "unstable"]
Use this cartoon
Free for classrooms, worksheets, slides and other non-commercial use under CC BY-NC 4.0, with credit to Ben Orlin.
Cartoon by Ben Orlin, Math with Bad Drawings. https://cartoons.mathwithbaddrawings.com/2019-02-27-yertle-the-turtle-in-graphs/ (CC BY-NC 4.0)