bicycle

Straight from the book, Flu Pandemic and You: A Canadian Guide, by Vincent Lam and Colin Lee, a tip for avoiding the swine flu pandemic is to buy (and ride) a bicycle, among other things.

Get a bicycle (automobiles keep you from interacting closely with people, but there is the potential problem of fuel shortages).

The reasoning being that bicycles help you to maintain your distance from other (possibly infected) people. I like how they suggest an apocalyptic scenario where so many people will fall ill that we will run out of fuel.

Read the whole list in the Globe and Mail article.

Jones' stable bikeIn 1970, David E. H. Jones investigated the physics of the bicycle, crafting a number of different bicycles to attempt to develop both the most unstable and the most stable bicycle. He was successful in both regards and further found the general principles that keep a bicycles upright. Contrary to the popular concept of the "gyroscopic effect" the principles of stability rely on the angle, rake and position of the front wheel.

Jones discovered that a bicycle that has had its front forks reversed so that the rake (curve of the fork) points inward ends up being a very stable bike that will self-correct when pushed and released riderless.

As it turns out this bike is too stable to be a good bicycle. Most modern bikes are built on the edge of instability to provide greater responsiveness.

I'm sure this isn't the end of the story. There have been more papers since, but they are locked away in these damned science journal sites. His experiments and calculations have contributed to bicycle engineering all the same and are known as Jones' stability criterion.

I love the last line of Jones' paper:

Obama wins!!

Barack Obama is your new Bicycle.

And an explanation.