Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Why is it easier to balance on a bicycle in motion?

It is nearly impossible to balance on a bicycle when it is stationary but balancing on a bicycle when it is in motion becomes almost effortless. Why?Why is it easier to balance on a bicycle in motion?1. gyroscopic stability of rotating wheels (gyroscopes need to spin to work)



2. falling to the left can be corrected by centrifugal force by steering left, but only if you are moving.Why is it easier to balance on a bicycle in motion?
This is a great physics question, which makes me think your in a physics class, maybe answering a question? A great page with some detailed info is:http://www.pedalmagic.com/Phys…

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Why is it easier to balance on a bicycle in motion?Don't use the term "centrifugal force", it is NOT a real force.



Falling to the left on a bicycle is corrected by the traction force of the bicycle tire pushing the bicycle leftward.

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Why is it easier to balance on a bicycle in motion?
The reason it is easy to balance oneself on a moving bicycle is connected with the two wheels’ angular momentum. As the wheels turn faster, their momentum increases and that makes it more difficult to change their direction. So not only is it easier to keep your balance while driving, its actually easier the faster you go.Why is it easier to balance on a bicycle in motion?Torque and Angular Momentum.



The object has rotational energy, which can be used to stabilize itself. I think it had something to do with angling it... which creates a torque in another direction (because you are applying a force at a radius), which occurs when you tilt the wheel, as well as spin it.



It's actually trying to maintain an angular momentum of 0, which means it creates negative momentum on the objects its touching... since the wheel on a bicycle has a fixed pivot point, and the bicycle itself isn't rotating, the entire Earth receives the angular velocity, and is either sped up or slowed down from it. If the object was in space, the entire bicycle would begin to rotate; if it was just the wheel, the wheel would begin to rotate around another axis as well, in order to cancel out the momentum.



My physics teacher actually had us demo this; he got a low-friction pad (with ball bearings supporting a rotatable pad) and gave us a bike wheel, which he spun. When we kept the wheel vertical, nothing really happened... but if you jerked the wheel to the side, you would start to rotate around on the pad in the opposite direction.Why is it easier to balance on a bicycle in motion?
As it is perfectly possible to balance a bicycle with very minimum velocity, gyroscopic effect from the wheels spinning would be infitessimal, not worth considering. So at slow speeds, it is the fact that you only need very small turn on the front wheel to produce a weight shift correction, that does most of the balancing.

Only at considerably larger velocity does a gyro effect tend to dominate.

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