Earlier quoted context omitted.
If unicycles had come first, would bicycles have ever surpassed them?
I don't think so. I use both and there are use cases for both, but the bicycle is generally safer and faster.
What is the use case for a Unicycle?
Why did we wait so long for the bicycle?
381–390 of 515 posts
Re: Why did we wait so long for the bicycle?
#382Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is an old Jewish tradition (written down in Pirkei Avot ~1700 years ago) which lists the objects that God created "on the eve of the Sabbath at twilight" after finishing the rest of creation. Most of them are religious or mystical in meaning, but the final object listed is "[the original] tongs, for tongs are made with tongs." here's a link to the text https://www.sefaria.org/Pirkei_Avot.5.6?lang=bi&with=all&la…
That's really interesting. The Tanakh never mentions an "evening and morning" for the Sabbath, unlike the first 6 days.
Good catch. That's because we're still on the 7th day according to the Tanakh.
The form of the verb translated that God "rested" is in fact progressive in the original Hebrew.
Re: Why did we wait so long for the bicycle?
#383Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you saw off a disc-shaped slice from a log of wood, and it rolls a few meters, you experience first hand that a single wheel can balance itself. Some say this is how the wheel was invented in the first place [citation needed].
That sounds like a unicycle, which is a hundred times harder to balance than a bicycle. The physics of how a bicycle balances itself when you are moving is very different than that, complicated, and quite unintuitive. Basically when the bike starts to lean to one side, the rotation of the front wheel causes it to steer to move the bike underneath the direction you are leaning. This happens several times a second, and…
Anyone can experience this by overtightening the headset (the steering axis) on a bike. Suddenly one has to focus on balancing way more and riding a bike no handed becomes almost impossible.
Re: Why did we wait so long for the bicycle?
#384Earlier quoted context omitted.
It does seem utterly counterintuitive that a vehicle that cannot balance by itself would be able to balance with the addition of a heavy rider elevating its center of gravity. Usually making an object top-heavy renders it even more unstable, and bicycles are not stable to begin with. And adding a rider on top of a bicycle does make it more unstable, but the amazing flexibility of the human brain allows us to transfor…
Bicycles are entirely stable without a rider as long as they’re moving. The human is only really necessary to provide motive power. There are a ton of videos showing this. It is totally unlike the intentional instability of a modern jet fighter.
That relies on the front fork being at an angle, though, doesn't it? If they made it straight down (which is the obvious choice) or pointing backwards, it would be much, much harder to ride.
Re: Why did we wait so long for the bicycle?
#385>Yet it was a simple mechanical invention As a mechanical engineer, this statement baffled me. All manufactured technology exists in the context of the manufacturing capabilities available to the designer. The manufacturing tech had to be tremendously complicated before a decent bike could be made. Hollow steel tubes aren't simple. Ball bearings aren't simple. There is a reductionist viewpoint among "theory" people t…
Chains and gears are especially not simple
Re: Why did we wait so long for the bicycle?
#386Earlier quoted context omitted.
I often wonder as I am building/fixing something (often my bicycle as it happens) and I happen to toss an extra screw in the trash how miraculous a simple screw of this type would have been to a middle-ages craftsman. The precision of keeping all those threads perfectly spaced is one thing, but the technology to make them in such volume at these sizes (often quite tiny), and in volumes so as to make them essentially…
Or consider how useless you would be if transported back 400 years. You would be able to offer great advice about washing hands or the solar system generalisations. But actually create something to show people....even the simplest things would be beyond most of us.
There is a good chance you might just end up as another Ignaz Semmelweis. The idea that washing hands would help against illnesses did not agree with the state of medical science.
Re: Why did we wait so long for the bicycle?
#387Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "The precision of keeping all those threads perfectly spaced is one thing" > Making the first precision screw requires a "screw originating machine".[1][2] This is a special-purpose device which can make a better screw than the ones used in building it. I hadn't realized screws would be needed to create a screw-making machine. I love that we have machines that make better versions of their own components, something…
Which is incidentally yet another reason why it's very important to ensure stability of our technological civilization. We've pulled ourselves by the straps of our boots a couple hundred meters into air now; it's not safe to stop pulling. Given big enough shock to economies and populations, we'll regress not a decade or three, but all the way to the beginning of industrial revolution - you can't build the technology…
That risk seems like a liability to me. It's also the Achilles' heel of all the new non-fossil-fuel-based energy production methods at scale - they all end up being dependent on that same advanced industrial base and transportation network, which is complex, fragile, and incidentally still runs on fossil fuels.
Re: Why did we wait so long for the bicycle?
#388> City roads at the time were paved with cobblestones, which were good for horses but too bumpy for bicycles. This is one of the draws for the Paris-Roubaix spring classic race, a +200 mile, single day race with dozens of sections of rural cobble stones. Though, generally well maintained, the roads are narrow and brutal on modern road racing carbon-fiber bikes on 23mm wide tires. Lots of attrition from accidents. Typ…
> Typically pretty wet weather for the (spring) race
Paris–Roubaix is certainly memorable when it's wet and muddy, but the last time it happened was in 2002! Early spring is the driest part of the year in north-eastern France, and so the usual conditions for the race are dry and dusty. See the Inner Ring: https://inrng.com/2016/04/rain-for-roubaix/
Re: Why did we wait so long for the bicycle?
#389Earlier quoted context omitted.
Burn scrap nothing, In Colonial America they'd burn decrepit houses to get the nails. Enough that colonial governments passed laws against it. Which reminds me when I was a little kid people would carefully pull the nails out of old boards and save them.
I did too. These days, I save nuts and bolts. Not because they are expensive to buy, but I don't want to spend a couple hours going to the hardware store to get one.
I thought everyone had a container where they keep a random selection of nuts and bolts that have been collected over the years...
Re: Why did we wait so long for the bicycle?
#390>Yet it was a simple mechanical invention As a mechanical engineer, this statement baffled me. All manufactured technology exists in the context of the manufacturing capabilities available to the designer. The manufacturing tech had to be tremendously complicated before a decent bike could be made. Hollow steel tubes aren't simple. Ball bearings aren't simple. There is a reductionist viewpoint among "theory" people t…
It goes both ways. Imagine what motor vehicles and transportation in general would look like today if we were able to manufacture and process titanium alloys like we do steel. How far away are we from that breakthrough?
Conversely, what would the world look like today without steel? No airplanes? No WWI nor WWII? No huge panamax ships? No global markets?