The Physics of the Bike

Please give this video a second to get going.

We have all seen or experienced it. When traveling at the right speeds, bikes can practically steer themselves, remaining upright and defying the pull of gravity. Physicists thought they figured out this minor mystery long ago. But a new paper (read the PDF here) by Andy Ruina (Cornell University) and Jim Papadopoulos (University of Wisconsin – Stout) challenges the conventional wisdom. This video, which comes to us courtesy of Science Friday, explains…

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