If you’re just learning how to ride a bike, you may be surprised at how stable the bike is once you start rolling. It turns out an academic team of engineers studied the physics behind cycling and still remain puzzled by a bike’s ability to be self-stable.
This group of academics with degrees in engineering wrote a paper published in Science Mag, “A Bicycle Can Be Self-Stable Without Gyroscopic or Caster Effects.” The group of four engineers studied the bike, its history, and built a bike absent of gyroscopic forces found on most bikes, and found the bike still remains upright. While the math works out, the physics remain a bit of a mystery.
via [ars technica]