Conservation of energy

Jun 29, 2010 22:05

There is a proposed electric bike gizmo which was being at work today, and leading to debate over whether it will genuinely save pedalling effort, or merely supply a placebo effect. So I ask LJ if anyone can work out (based on the very limited available information) if it will work ( Read more... )

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kvetcheternal June 29 2010, 22:30:09 UTC
My intuition is that they won't add much effort (since the physical construction of your feet oppose the turning without needing to expend energy on it) but the work added to the system will be negligable.

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rebecacaca June 30 2010, 06:27:27 UTC
Yes but does that take into account that the feet also need to stay on the pedals: its not just a matter of keeping legs still and it propelling itself?

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pocket_size_g June 30 2010, 08:25:37 UTC
First thing that came to mind was wheelchair technology, and I think something that sounds a bit similar is already implemented (it may be less similar, but it superficially sounds like it, and I've only had one cup of coffee, so bear with me).

Intelligent wheels, "e-motion power-assisted wheels" as I've seen them called, are like normal wheels when turned off, but when they get turned on, their battery turns a little gentle push into a much stronger force, making it much much easier to do things like go uphill in the wheelchair, with minimum effort. Tugging the wheels back applies the brakes.

Doing a search for "e-motion power-assisted wheels" turns out this page as the first result. The features do sound very similar, although you need to manually select your settings in the wheelchair, rather than noticing what you are doing and reacting to that ( ... )

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