Physics of riding a bike

Before we got our liscenses we would either depend on our two feet, a bike, or finding somebody to give us a ride. We were taught to ride a bike with training wheels and then just two wheels. Parents always by your side until you get the hang of it enough and they just kick back and watch. But they never told you the physics that went into riding a bicycle.

The potential energy that a person could have towards riding a bike starts when they are standing over the frame, either thinking about what path they are going to take this time. But when they start to pedal that potential energy turns into kinetic energy, and every pause in between the pedaling there is a little gain of the potential to be used to help pedal agian. Momentum can affect how much pedaling you do. This is because when you pedal that momentum will keep you going a certian speed and slowly that speed will diminish, which will you will have to pedal agian. A way to find your average velocity on a bike is to set up cones at a certian distance apart. Then get two people, one to time you riding andone to tell the timer when to stop his or her stop watch. The bicycle rider has to get up to a average speed so that your calculations can be somewhat accurate. Then once you collect the data, you can use the equation velocity is equal to distance over the time.

Your parents probally didnt tell you all this because you would get really confused and have no idea what they were talking about. This is an idea of how physics goes into riding a bike.