How many are our most sincere interests? In a time where Sustainability became a popular theme among our scientists, societies and companies, who is really working for it because of a real belief in it, and its very likely consequences?
Nowadays, sustainability is a hot-topic, and that we won't argue. Many companies, even food and drink packaging, claim to be natural, or to be doing everything to reduce, reuse, or "re-affirm their places in the market." Seriously, go to Mc Donald's take a paper bag, or even a drink, and Mc Donald's will there be claiming action. I'm a firm believer that every little action, independently of the reasons behind it, that motivate it, is good, if it does indeed contribute to a major positive goal.
I've already taken plenty of sustainability, environmental courses, read many articles in the area, done projects related to it and so on. But, this summer of 2012, I've decided to give sustainability more practice. I started biking to Bunker Hill Community College, my school, for my chemistry classes, in a way to save gas (which not only costs a lot - but pollutes our environment), care for my health (stay fit and release the stress that driving into a big city causes), and save time!
I started biking about 2-3 times a week, biking a distance of 6 miles each way, a total of 12 miles a day. The best part of it, was that I took about the same time I would take in the car, maybe a little bit more, but instead of having to spend time at a gym, I would get my work out done at that time, and later I was free to do anything else I needed.
For this adventure I took my "mountain bike." It is just a regular, simple bike. However, for many times I was biking, I noticed that people in their road bikes and so, would pass me with an agility that I could not describe.
Despite the slight embarrassment - that almost, first-time at the gym after a long time away feeling - I noticed that it wasn't really my potential that was causing that. I really worked hard to keep going, but something else was being responsible for these other bikes agility!
ENGINEERING THOUGHT MODE ON: If the users had little difference in the difference of agility of both bikers - a mountain biker and a road biker - what was the difference then, but the bikes?
Before I reached to google or some other source, I started thinking, wondering what were the reasons behind it all.
The first thing I thought, came from noticing the difference on the tires of both types of bikes. Mountain Bikes have a larger tire than road bikes. Friction, one of the most basic principles in physics, should certainly be playing a role.
On another day, as I moved my body slightly forward, I noticed that with my legs a little bit forward than usual, the impulse my body was giving to the bike came from my thighs, a stronger muscle, than my shins, and I could go slightly faster than normally - or so I felt. Then I realized that there was a difference in the shape between road/mountain bikes. In a way, road bikes favor the bikers body to be in a more forward position, giving that considerable impulse, and the easiness to keep going on, faster.
By that point, it was already the end of my 2-month, summer semester, and I already could not sleep without finally researching and finding the reasons behind it.
Yes, I was right, the difference of tires and shapes do play a role. Moreover, the shape in the frames, for the road bike also helps with the aerodynamics of it. It does causes some back pain in its new riders, however.
Moreover, something that I could not take from looking, was that the difference in weight also plays a role. Road bikes are just so much lighter than mountain bikes! Obviously, reducing its normal force, and the friction it has with the pavement, associated to the aerodynamics of the frame, you'll find that, well, bikers on road bikes are that much faster.
In the end, my little sustainability project ended up giving me some gains, the gas savings, the boost it gave to my health, the way I could partake in helping the environment on my daily life, and most of all, the boost it gave to my brain in applying some daily-life engineering.
Hope you all keep-engineering & contributing more and more to our world.
Your web-host:
No comments:
Post a Comment