7 ms·
Who could have guessed - attaching springs to your feet makes you run faster. This is the kind of genius scientific insight that's going to ensure the long term
by bongwater_OS 3y ago
Who could have guessed - attaching springs to your feet makes you run faster. This is the kind of genius scientific insight that's going to ensure the long term survival of the human race.
- zellyn 3y agoWould you have guessed that attaching springs to your feet would make you run faster? I certainly would not have guessed that.
- WalterBright 3y agoDidn't Wile E Coyote try that out?
- rocketbop 3y agoYes with mixed results.
- ben_w 3y agoNot only is that not entirely obvious at first glance, it sounds like the kind of paper-thin plot device used in a Loony Tunes cartoon. That it actually works is moderately surprising.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- tech_ken 3y agoI mean yeah it's not exactly a novel observation, but there is some subtlety in /how/ you attach springs to your legs which seems to be the primary contribution of the paper. The two naive options - referred to as "in series and in parallel" - don't see the same results as their proposal (which they discuss at some length in the intro). Their proposal is more about making the "springs on your legs" idea as effective as possible by using a hip attachment to adjust the loading/unloading cycle. By loading the spring with your leg while it's in the air you can improve the overall energy throughput of your gait. Other "springs on your feet" concepts (mentioned throughout the comments section) use a loading/unloading cycle that's 180 degrees out of phase with this (leg on the ground is doing the loading). Snark is kind of the enemy of critical thought