The unsolved mystery that has plagued scientists for 200 years

I'm sure we all have the experience of riding a bicycle. The structure of a bicycle is very simple, frame, tires, pedals, chain, brakes, all these things are reasonably assembled enough to keep us balanced during the riding process. But have you ever thought about why a bicycle can be balanced during a ride instead of falling over?

This may be a common physical phenomenon, but no one has ever been able to explain the real reason. Not to mention ordinary people, as early as 200 years ago scientists have tried to explain the reasons for bicycle balance, but unfortunately, until now, it is still a mystery.

The origin and development of the bicycle

As the most common means of transportation in modern society, the bicycle is probably one of the most successful human machines invented by man. Its parts are all simple machines, but it is these simple machines that are technically assembled to give birth to a complex machine, for which we have to admire the wisdom of our predecessors. Do you know who invented the bicycle in the first place?

According to the relevant records, the earliest prototype of the bicycle was the "wooden horse wheel" formed by the French Count of Sivrac in 1790.

The wooden horse wheel did not have much technical content, it is said that the Count of Sivrac was inspired after seeing Leonardo da Vinci's manuscript, two wheels were mounted on a wooden horse, and then a person rode on it with pedals; speed, and easy to wear the wheels.

In 1816, the German nobleman Baron von der Rijs added controllable handlebars to Sievrac's invention, and technically speaking, the bicycle could no longer be called a "wooden horse and the wheel" but a "wooden wheelbarrow", the difference being that Baron von der Rijs The Baron abandoned the traditional wooden horse shape to make the bike lighter.

Baron von der Riess then applied for a patent from the relevant authorities, which was successfully granted.

About 23 years later, Macmillan, a Scottish blacksmith, saw Baron von der Riess's "wooden wheelbarrow", but his profession as a blacksmith made him uncomfortable with wood, and in Macmillan's mind, if the bicycle was made of iron, it would be far more durable and stable than wood.

Based on this inspiration, he made an iron bicycle with a crank-link structure driving the rear wheel.

By then, the basic structure of the bicycle had already been established, and later generations were simply sewing based on the inventions of their predecessors.

For example, in 1861, French father and son Shomi added pedals that could rotate and cranks to the front and rear of the bicycle; in 1874, Englishman Lawson added a chain drive structure to the bicycle; in 1886, Staley used brakes and ball bearings for the first time; and in 1888, Dunlop successfully applied pneumatic rubber tires.

Since then, the bicycle has essentially tended to be perfected. From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 21st century, the bicycle has undoubtedly changed human life tremendously. In previous years, people traveled on two legs for the poor and carriages and cars for the rich.

But after the bicycle became popular, almost every household could buy this light and fast transportation, and until now there are still many people using bicycles, which is a very great invention.

Why bicycle can keep balance

At the same time, people's love for bicycles has also made scientists pay a lot of attention to their research. Of course, what scientists study is not the assembly and disassembly of bicycles, which have been developed over the centuries and are no longer a secret.

What they care more about is: how does a bicycle maintain balance? We all know that the bicycle itself has no way to maintain balance, it needs to be supported by a bracket to stand up.

But when the bicycle is ridden up, it can walk very smoothly on the road, which seems to be the most common physical phenomenon in life, but after several generations of scientists have not been able to explain it clearly.

In 1897, the French Academy of Sciences established a prize for the stable movement of bicycles, and the prize money was considerable; in the years that followed, scientists continued to challenge the prize, but unfortunately, they all failed.

However, several theories were born in the academic world, although they did not stand up to rigorous experimentation and remained at the conjecture stage.

For example, some scientists believe that what keeps the bicycle in balance while moving is probably the "gyroscopic effect", i.e., the moment of gravity on the support point of an object rotating at high speed does not cause it to tip over, but move at a small angle.

When the bike starts to move, the conservation of angular momentum allows it to remain stable for a long time, even without a driver, as long as that kinetic energy is still present.

But later this view was denied because in 1970 someone made a bike with tires without the gyroscopic effect, but the bike was still able to maintain balance while moving.

So maybe the gyroscopic effect has some influence on the balance of the bike, but it is not the core factor. Later on, someone else proposed a "caster effect", which means that when a bicycle is tilted, the front wheel will be tilted to one side to produce a deflection angle, and the rear bicycle will be righted by the centrifugal force caused by the deflection angle. But later this statement was also disproved.

Have you ever wondered why scientists haven't found the real reason for the balance of the bicycle, which is a very simple principle of operation? That is because the bicycle was not designed to follow the laws of science, from the bicycle development process we can see, that you add bricks and I add tiles, and the bicycle was built.

The essence is to facilitate travel and make the bicycle last longer, not to make it run scientifically according to theoretical design.