How do people maintain balance while riding a bicycle or skating?

  • Context: High School 
  • Thread starter Thread starter wangyi
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Bicycle
Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
2 replies · 3K views
wangyi
Messages
55
Reaction score
0
Hi, I have a question:
How does people keep balance when they riding a bicycle or skating? Moving seems to be essential, when riding a bicycle, we can argue that the wheel is rotating, so it's angular momentum keeps the balance. But in the case of skate, nothing is rotating, but people seem to be able to keep balance better when he is moving forward. How to explain it?

Thank you very much and happy new year!
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Doesn't skating involve horizontal and vertical projections? Isn't the vertical projection independent of the horizontal projection? What about the center of gravity, doesn't it play a pivotal role in the balance of a body?
 
With skating, you keep your balance exactly the same as if you are walking - it's just a little tougher because the contact area for each foot is essentially 1-dimensional.