Please look up some data and assumptions on google if needed.... just indicate t
ID: 3308900 • Letter: P
Question
Please look up some data and assumptions on google if needed.... just indicate the assumptions in the answer
2. Essay question: it takes a lot less effort to ride a bicycle 10 km on a flat road than to walk the same distance. Describe the various factors that a bike rider must spend energy on to maintain a constant speed. (In other words, where does the energy go? If you assigned a number to each of these, the sum would equal the calories burned while biking.) Compare these to how energy is spent while walking, and discuss why it makes sense that riding a bike is more energy efficientExplanation / Answer
Let's assume that there is very less friction between the ground and shoes/cycle. This implies given an initial kinetic energy the cycle could move in that state until an external force tries to slow it down. This is not the case with walking as we cannot store that energy in any form given an initial kinetic energy. But there is significant friction between the surface and the shoes/cycle.
In the case of a cycle where the frictional force between the tyres and the surface is the major external force that slows down the cycle. The area of contact where friction acts is less compared to the area of contact for the shoes. Though there is air resistance is another factor, it doesn't have major implications when working with approximations and at low speeds.
While walking there are a lot of other muscles that are being moved, there just isn't a horizontal movement but also a lateral movement which results in more energy being spent while walking. Whereas in cycling the most of the lateral movement made by us in pedalling is directly converted into horizontal movement. It's majorly the leg muscles which are involved in cycling.
The average energy burned by an average person covering 10km:
This clearly shows us that cycling is way more efficient than walking, we could even say than running.