Recent content by ellerbro

That definitely clears things up. Thanks for all your input folks.

What's wrong with this reasoning: The cyclist begins moving forward because the wheels begin to rotate. The wheels rotate because the rider's weight translates to a torque on the wheels. The heavier the rider the greater the torque, therefore the greater the acceleration. So even at very slow...

So you don't think the heavier rider will have a greater acceleration from the start, assuming they both start with zero velocity?

This caught my interest after someone posted the question on a cycling forum of would a heavy and light cyclist have different accelerations down an inclined plane when coasting from a stop. Many people had observed that heavier cyclists do indeed have a greater acceleration, but I wasn't...