I’m sorry…I never learned this in school, [dumb pun -->]I know it’s a dopey question [/<-- dumb pun], but here goes:
Why can I balance on a bicycle/scooter when it is moving, but not when it is stopped? Just because I’m moving forward shouldn’t negate the fact that there is only one balanced position (side to side).
The way that a bicycle balances when moving is that the front wheel, if the bike is leaned, turns into the lean. This is caused by the point where the tire contacts the ground being aft of where the angle of the fork would intersect the ground.
So if the rider’s body shifts to the left, this means the bike would be leaning to the left, which causes the front tire to point to the left direction, and the tires roll back under the center of gravity. It’s the idea that the system corrects itself, called “negative feedback,” because the corrective force is in the opposite direction of the disturbing force.
But for all this to work, the bike must be moving. There’s a minimum speed where it corrects itself - slower than this and you have to increase the effect by aiming the handlebars yourself to pull the tires back under your center of gravity.
And don’t let anyone tell you that a bicycle works because your wheels are gyroscopes - this effect is negligible on a bicycle.
Lots of people will tell you it’s because a spinning wheel is harder to tilt than a stationary wheel due to the angular momentum. That’s actually only a very small part of the reason.
The main reason is that when you’re moving, you can stop yourself from falling by “tilting” into a slight turn. If you watch someone riding a bike, you’ll notice that it doesn’t go in a straight line, but rather in a series of wide arcs. Try riding your bike in an absolutely straight line - you’ll fall just as you do when you’re standing still. Also notice how when you start to fall, you naturally want to slightly turn the bike. Learning to do this is necessary for someone to learn to ride a bike.
At the fair, some carny rigged a bike so that the wheel would turn in the opposite direction of the handlebars. To win the huge prize, all one has to do is ride the bike less than five feet starting from rest. It looks so damn easy!!! I thought all I would have to do is stay up straight and keep the handlebars from turning. I gave that bastard five bucks before I realized you can’t start a bike without turning the wheel to balance yourself out right away.
Moving or not, you would not be able to balance this thing. Not unless you are a damn carny with nothing else to do all day but ride a bike with goofy handlebars…
… yes I’m bitter.
You might check out this web page for an explanation.For a really detailed explanation, try here.