The Physics of How Bikes Stay Upright

We still don’t really know how bicycles work…

The first bicycles were invented, not through any kind of scientific procedure, but by dumb old trial and error. Even modern bike design schools admit that it’s not engineering or computer knowledge that make a good bike designer, but instead “intuition and experience.”

In fact, top bike researchers admit that, even though some people have come up with equations on how to ride a bike or how they think bikes work, those equations are pretty much fancy icing on top of a cake of cluelessness. One Cornell researcher even says that absolutely nobody has ever come to an intuitive understanding of what makes a bicycle do its thing.

But there is something we know. Watch the crew at Minute Physics explaining the three key factors that help a bicycle stay upright.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
5 fun physics phenomena
Hilarious puns that only nerds will understand
Fun with physics (15-gifs)