The Mysterious Physics Behind How Bikes Ride by Themselves

So sim­ple and yet so com­plex. The bicy­cle remains the world’s most pop­u­lar form of trans­porta­tion, found in house­holds world­wide, in coun­tries rich and poor. And yet the bike remains some­thing of a mys­tery to us. How the bike can ride almost on its own is some­thing physi­cists still pon­der and write aca­d­e­m­ic papers about. It’s also the sub­ject of this new episode from the pop­u­lar YouTube series Minute Physics. The video explains in a few suc­cinct min­utes what we know and still don’t know about this fix­ture in our every­day lives. All stuff to think about on your next ride.…

via NPR

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Physics: Free Online Cours­es

The Feyn­man Lec­tures on Physics, The Most Pop­u­lar Physics Book Ever Writ­ten, Now Com­plete­ly Online

Physics from Hell: How Dante’s Infer­no Inspired Galileo’s Physics

The Art & Sci­ence of Bike Design: A 5‑Part Intro­duc­tion from the Open Uni­ver­si­ty