How to balance on a unicycle like a pro?

By -

How do you balance on a unicycle?
Get a handle on the forces that keep you upright on one wheel
To balance on a unicycle, you have to keep pedaling. It’s Newton’s first law: an object in motion tends to stay in motion. Maintaining stability, however, is the hard part. Three forces are at work here: gravity, contact, and friction. 

Gravity pulls the unicycle down and contact force with the ground pushes back. The surface that the unicycle is moving along exerts friction, which is what allows the unicycle to balance, speed up and slow down. The rider has to keep accurate posture, in alignment with the frame of the unicycle. As soon as he begins to tip, he will fall as he is in unstable equilibrium. However, he needs to tilt his body to move. In order to go forward, the unicyclist leans forward. This means changing the point of contact to maintain the center of gravity, which means constant pedaling. He also has to countersteer to turn. This means moving in the opposite direction to where he wants to go. To make a left turn, for example, he first steers slightly to the right so that he can lean to the left. It’s a juggle of forces worthy of a circus.
Forces in motion
Three forces are at work during unicycling
1 Contact force
Contact with the ground pushes against the unicycle.
2 Centre of mass

Weight needs to be evenly distributed around the center of mass.
3 Gravity
Gravity works to pull down the unicycle.
4 Displacement
When the unicyclist leans forward, he begins tipping and must pedal to keep from falling.
5 Friction
Surface friction allows the unicycle to move.

Comments

Post a Comment

Social Walls

Follow Me on

Share this Post

Recommended for You

Popular Posts

This is how a police chase the fugitive!

By -
Image
How do you stop a speeding car? This is how a police chase the fugitive 1  Speeding car High-speed chases can last hours and are very dangerous, so officers use the precision immobilization technique (PIT) to stop the fugitive’s car. 2  In pursuit The police officer begins the maneuver by aligning the front of their car with the back of the car being chased. 3  Losing traction The rear wheels lose grip against the road, sending the suspect’s car into a skid. 4  Sharp turn The pursuing officer then steers their car sharply into the side of the fugitive’s vehicle, making them spin. 5  End of the road The fugitive either lets the car spin out of control or resorts to braking, ending the chase either way. 6  Keep turning The officer continues to turn in the same direction until they are clear of the car, preventing the criminal from correcting the skid.
Read the full content »

What are Crystal Giants and Why are they Deadly?

By -
Image
What are Crystal Giants? Deep under a Mexican desert lies a mysterious cave that’s beautiful but deadly T wo brothers were drilling in the Naica mine in Mexico when they revealed a geological  wonder  of the world, hundreds of thousands of  years in the making. The Cueva de Los Cristales, or Cave of Crystals, is a glittering castle covered in some of the largest crystals anyone has ever seen. Measuring over 11 meters – roughly the length of a bus – they have risen in the extreme conditions of the cave. Temperature is scorching at 44 degrees Celsius and up to 100 percent humidity which means the air you breathe quickly condenses inside your lungs. Geologists hell bent on exploring the cave and living to tell the tale had to don specially designed suits, covered with ice packs. If they had taken their respirator mask off for more than ten minutes, they would have fallen senseless. However, what proves deadly for  humans  are actually the perf
Read the full content »

How Do We Fire Torpedoes?

By -
Image
How do we fire torpedoes? T orpedoes can be launched from both ships and submarines during warfare, using torpedo tubes placed up along the hull. World War II-era torpedoes were guided towards the destination using an internal gyroscope, and their pathway could be fine-tuned using the rudders after they had been released. A pendulum inside of the torpedo kept it level after its release. Many modern torpedoes are wire guided, which means that they can be commanded remotely after their launch, before the wire is cut off and the internal supervision system takes over. Once the torpedo detects an enemy the ship, or makes contact with it, the on-board explosive is detonated to rip a hole in its side in order to send it settling to the bottom of the ocean without a proof.
Read the full content »

How a Single-Stream Recycling Plant can save the World?

By -
Image
What’s Inside a Single Stream Recycling plant ? The machine that separates your recyclables so you don’t have to 1   Tipping floor A steady stream of recycling collection vehicles arrives at the facility, dumping their cargo of various recyclables out onto the tipping floor. Drivers look out for any oversized things like car engines that would cause destruction to the plant machines. 2  Loading Powerful loaders shunt heaps of mixed recyclables into a large hopper, where they are tumbled over a rotating drum to loosen compacted materials. They then flow onto a giant conveyer belt, which speeds the jumble into the main facility. 3  Manual pre-sort Teams of human sorters pick out non-recyclable items from the fast-moving stream, including crisp packets, plastic bags, shoes, and nappies, as well as big items like scrap metal that might block the machines. 4  Star screen sorting A series of vibrating, rotating shafts, fitted with offset star-shaped discs, eleva
Read the full content »

How The New Generation Road Is Made Up Of?

By -
Image
What makes up a road? The construction process is more complex than you might think I t is believed that the first roads paved with bricks were created in the Indus Valley more than 5,000 years ago. Today, there are plenty of roads on Earth to circle the planet over 600 times, but bricks are no longer the material of preference when constructing new roads. In fact, the roads of today are built using layers of many different materials. Vehicles are heavy – a typical family car weighs well over a ton – which indicates that roads have to be tough enough to withstand the pressures involved. That’s why the load is spread over four layers. At the bottom is the sub-grade – this is the local soil that is compressed with a roller. Next, you have the sub-base, typically made from crushed concrete. The base comes next – another layer of finely crushed rock mixed with asphalt and slag, which is a waste product from steel production. Then comes the smelly stuff – the binder and surface mat
Read the full content »