“What if we could fold it away?”

Nesting: One object is placed within another, or one object passes through another.

Inside each other

Think of nested measuring cups, chairs that stack neatly on top of one another and nested shopping carts.

Retract that

Some systems retract linearly like a telescope antenna on a car or a telescopic ladder, while others roll up on a spool like the power wire in a vacuum cleaner, a measuring tape or the seat belt. Some have more complicated geometries, like airplane landing gear and convertible car roofs.

More examples

As I stumble across real world examples of this Inventive Principle in action I add them here.

Your turn

What problems do you face that this inventive principle could help solve? Have you used this principle before?