sanxian, large family of 3-stringed plucked musical instruments, with snakeskin covered wooden soundbox and long neck, used in folk music, opera and Chinese orchestra
三
=
一
+
二
:
Mnemonic symbol: Cartesian coordinate system with three (三) axes. Socrates (s-) is performing in front of the anthill (-an1). He created an electrical flute by attaching a large capacitor (二) to the flute (一), so that he can get the attention of all the people. Moreover, he's balancing on a Cartesian coordinate system (三). Unfortunately, only three (三) people stop to watch the performance.
bow string / string of musical instrument / watchspring / chord (segment of curve) / hypotenuse / CL:根[gen1]
弦
=
弓
+
玄
:
Marie Curie (xi) is getting trapped by black lava (玄) in the anthill's kitchen (an2) and all she has is a composite bow (弓). She plucks the string (弦) of her bow so that the chord (弦) resonates with the lava, causing it to stop its flow.