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Old 03-23-15 | 01:20 PM
  #74  
FBinNY
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Joined: Apr 2009
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From: New Rochelle, NY

Bikes: too many bikes from 1967 10s (5x2)Frejus to a Sumitomo Ti/Chorus aluminum 10s (10x2), plus one non-susp mtn bike I use as my commuter

you have the physics backward and need to apply some model theory.

Simply put, mass is the cube of dimensions, while frontal area is the square. So larger/heavier riders gain advantage as their mass increases faster than their frontal area.

Simple rule ----- the terminal velocity increases with size, which is why squirrels don't get hurt falling out of trees and humans do.

The concept is captued nicely by Haldane in his essay On Being the Right Size
You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft; and, on arriving at the bottom, it gets a slight shock and walks away, provided that the ground is fairly soft. A rat is killed, a man is broken, a horse splashes.
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Last edited by FBinNY; 03-23-15 at 01:27 PM.
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