COMMUNIST FLISK
New Member
why is it easy to balance on a bicycle when your moving, but hard when stationary with your feet off the floor? same for motorbikes too
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riding a bike
- Thread starter COMMUNIST FLISK
- Start date
Netheralian
New Member
GoodKat said:
That would be giroscopic stability/inertia. But right idea...
Yeah, it's the force generated by the spinning wheel. This is a fun one to test for yourself, grab an old bicycle wheel and spin it. Then try to tilt it to the side, you should be able to feel a strong force opposing your own.
Wow, they look like they're having fun with science.
Principle of gyration.
Wow, they look like they're having fun with science.
Principle of gyration.
The classic conservation of angular momemtum example is holding a bike wheel while standing on a turntable -- shift the wheel axis from the horizontal to the vertical and the turntable spins in the other direction.
That only indirectly covers gyro action, however. My favorite puzzle along such lines is why a coin tends to roll after falling instead of simply going flat on its face. I understand the theory behind it -- if the coin falls with a forward velocity component it tends to roll, and the force that tends to tip it over sets up a torque that changes the direction of roll -- but honestly visualizing how it works has, despite many efforts, proven impossible.
That only indirectly covers gyro action, however. My favorite puzzle along such lines is why a coin tends to roll after falling instead of simply going flat on its face. I understand the theory behind it -- if the coin falls with a forward velocity component it tends to roll, and the force that tends to tip it over sets up a torque that changes the direction of roll -- but honestly visualizing how it works has, despite many efforts, proven impossible.