How Standing Posture Affects Comfort on a Bumpy Bus Ride

[magneto11]

Why do u keep your legs far apart when you have to stand in the aisle of a bumpy-riding bus?



No Equation all theoretical



3.I searched through whole topic but could not locate the answer.I am pretty new to this subject so hopefully you will be able to answer in this in physics language (Because i found some answer on yahoo answers but they were not the types of answer i can use for my physics notebook!
Thanks

 

[cupid.callin]

Hint: it has to do something with rotation

 

[pongo38]

You know that diagram showing a bowl with a ball in it to demonstrate stable equilibrium (a small perturbation ends up with the ball at the bottom of the bowl); and an upside down bowl with ball on top (small pertutrbation results in unstable equilibrium)? And a third case for neutral equilibrium...

 

[DaveC426913]

magento11, set the physics aside for themoment, you do this within even thinking. Can you figure out what advantage you get from it?

 

[AlexChandler]

Consider Torque

$$\vec \tau = \vec r \times \vec F$$

 

[magneto11]

We keep our legs far apart when we have to stand in the aisle of a bumpy-riding bus because it is hard to find a center of gravity standing up. Having open legs gives a greater space to have a the center there by maximizing the amount of balance you have. (Let me know if i am correct- This is the answer i came up with - If you can improve it please do help)
Thanks

 

[AlexChandler]

We keep our legs far apart when we have to stand in the aisle of a bumpy-riding bus because it is hard to find a center of gravity standing up. Having open legs gives a greater space to have a the center there by maximizing the amount of balance you have. (Let me know if i am correct- This is the answer i came up with - If you can improve it please do help)
Thanks

well its almost right, but the center of gravity is at a point, not in some space. We keep our legs out so that that point doesn't find its way outside of our range of support, when the bus hits a bump in the road. Because if this happens we are likely to fall.

 

[DaveC426913]

Well, yeah Alex, I think he's got it.
The space he's talking about is that space in which the CoG can move around without you being off-balance. With legs wide apart, that space is larger.

 

[SteamKing]

I'm amazed to find someone who has apparently never ridden a bus.

 

[snhnaqvi]

Hi there!

The wider stance makes a greater angle between the forces your legs exerts. In vector algebra, when the angle between two forces is 120° the resultant is equal to the magnitude of either of these forces. So it gives more leverage against the movement of the bus.

 

[cupid.callin]

Hi there!

The wider stance makes a greater angle between the forces your legs exerts. In vector algebra, when the angle between two forces is 120° the resultant is equal to the magnitude of either of these forces. So it gives more leverage against the movement of the bus.

You do know that this thread was last active about 2 years ago, right?