A Varignon frame is a system of weight

Weight

In science and engineering, the weight of an object is the force on the object due to gravity. Its magnitude , often denoted by an italic letter W, is the product of the mass m of the object and the magnitude of the local gravitational acceleration g; thus:...

s and pulley

Pulley

A pulley, also called a sheave or a drum, is a mechanism composed of a wheel on an axle or shaft that may have a groove between two flanges around its circumference. A rope, cable, belt, or chain usually runs over the wheel and inside the groove, if present...

s used by geographer

Geographer

A geographer is a scholar whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society.Although geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography...

s to help determine optimum location. For example, the weights might represent the relative cost of transporting particular goods to or from particular locations, to help a firm decide the most cost effective site to locate a prospective production facility.

In this drawing of a Varignon frame, the weights are represented as orange cubes. The blue plane could be a map, and the point where all the "strings" meet would indicate the optimum location where the sum of the weights times the distances from this point to the holes (facility locations) is minimum.