Saturday, November 30, 2013

I'm no physics major, but it doesn't look like he's got this.

This is STILL getting play.  Apparently it was the top Reddit subject of the day, 3 days ago.  This is one of my favorite comments:  "A rider can jump while simply riding along a flat surface, and that jump depends greatly on the skill of the rider (and weight/strength of rider and weight of bike etc...). Therefore the launch cannot be modeled as a simple point mass rolling off a ramp. With the additional vertical momentum added by a rider the real launch angle could be more like 30 to 40 degrees.
You can see his wheels are still on and above the 25deg line drawn from the end of the ramp (especially his rear wheel) and this is after he has traveled some distance. His actual launch angle seems to be more like 35 degrees (25 deg ramp angle + rider induced loft).
Add in the slight height difference between the ramp and the toes and he can probably make this jump at about 14.4 feet/s which is under 10mph.
Its doable but on that little bike he would need a significant run up to hit 10mph.
If the rider doesnt loft the jump very well with his own weight transfer then launches at less than 35 degrees (say 30) hes going to land right around the area of the kids feet.
Either way from the photo you can see he either lofted the jump well at 10mph or he hasnt added much launch angle but is going fast enough to still be on the 25 degree angle line after 1/3 of the distance has been covered.
For reference folks can punch in their own numbers into this website: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/traj.html#tra10
http://www.onlineconversion.com/speed_common.htm
Use that calculator for conversion between ft/s and mile per hour.
Conclusion: There is a reasonable chance this kid makes the jump and the Kid in the background can finish his popsicle without PTSD. Worst case is he needs to use the popsicle to ice the other kids ankle when it gets hit by the bike."

3 comments:

  1. I missed this the first time around, apparently:
    http://my100thsite.ytmnd.com/
    You know I'm a sucker for a VO, but this one's just gorgeous.

    Good jorb on the Harlem Shake-y recreation too. Terror Squadd Affiliates and flippin out!

    love it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. who's busting a backflip in the background? double rad.

    ReplyDelete