page_title: Trim tab
section_title: Trim tab as a metaphor
hierarchical_section_title: Trim tab / Trim tab as a metaphor
caption_attribution_description: English: Grave of Buckminster Fuller
context_page_description: Trim tabs are small surfaces connected to the trailing edge of a larger control surface on a boat or aircraft, used to control the trim of the controls, i.e. to counteract hydro- or aerodynamic forces and stabilise the boat or aircraft in a particular desired attitude without the need for the operator to constantly apply a control force. This is done by adjusting the angle of the tab relative to the larger surface.
  Changing the setting of a trim tab adjusts the neutral or resting position of a control surface. As the desired position of a control surface changes, an adjustable trim tab will allow the operator to reduce the manual force required to maintain that position—to zero, if used correctly. Thus the trim tab acts as a servo tab. Because the center of pressure of the trim tab is farther away from the axis of rotation of the control surface than the center of pressure of the control surface, the moment generated by the tab can match the moment generated by the control surface. The position of the control surface on its axis will change until the torques from the control surface and the trim surface balance each other.
context_section_description: Designer Buckminster Fuller is often cited for his use of trim tabs as a metaphor for leadership and personal empowerment. In the February 1972 issue of Playboy, Fuller said:
  Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do.  Think of the Queen Mary—the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there's a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trim tab.
  It's a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab. Society thinks it's going right by you, that it's left you altogether. But if you're doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is going to go.
  
  So I said, call me Trim Tab.
  — Buckminster Fuller
  The official newsletter of the Buckminster Fuller Institute is called "Trimtab".
  Fuller’s metaphorical use of the trim-tab mechanism received considerable media attention in January 2019 when actor Jeff Bridges appreciated it in his Cecil B. DeMille Award acceptance speech at the 76th Golden Globes: 'Bucky made the analogy that a trim tab is an example of how the individual is connected to society and how we affect society. And I like to think of myself as a trim tab. All of us are trim tabs. We might seem like we’re not up to the task, but we are, man. We’re alive! We can make a difference! We can turn this ship in the way we wanna go, man!'
caption: Grave of Buckminster Fuller
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