Maths bods - a question please

6 watchers

NoFleecingAround Jul 2016 4:42pm, 5 Jul 2016 28,754 posts	0 NoFleecingAround Lol, this thread cracked me up My kids scoot to school, this has essentially the same body position as walking but maybe slightly more leg lift so the quads would get wetter. However it's twice as fast as walking. But in reality it always seems to rain hardest just as they're leaving for school, and senior school kids Don't Do Coats, so ds1 just gets sopping wet anyway and steams for the first few hours of school Ds2 wears a duffle coat which absorbs water so his coat steams instead of him.
Badger Jul 2016 5:15pm, 5 Jul 2016 7,555 posts	0 Badger Cycling with an umbrella is a terrible idea, though it had a bit of traction around here a few years ago. I think natural selection took care of it.
Winded Jul 2016 5:24pm, 5 Jul 2016 4,402 posts	0 Winded Experimentation seems better than maths here - and possibly a coat. (I remember at school doing the same problem with walk/run through the rain and the answer varied with distance - it is a bit distant now unfortunately)
NoFleecingAround Jul 2016 5:36pm, 5 Jul 2016 28,757 posts	0 NoFleecingAround People in Copenhagen cycle with umbrellas plenty aviewfromthecyclepath.com
JK chameleon Jul 2016 8:30pm, 5 Jul 2016 11,532 posts	0 JK chameleon I had a brief time cycling to work. Aside from the constant feeling that I was about to die - the A6 not being the most cycle-friendly of roads - I also felt that I got absolutely drenched, regularly arriving at the office looking bedraggled and like a drowned rat. Much of the water was splash-back from the rear tyre flinging water up my back. Luckily I could change and towel down - guessing this isn't a possibility for the young 'un. Umbrellas are also a huge pain in the backside - and even as a 34 year old I feel deeply un-cool carrying one. Is a schoolboy really going to want to take that much of a hit in street-cred? None of which helps, I know. My best advice would be for him to get to school by either method nice and early, and bag himself a place on the handiest radiator so he can dry out in time for registration (or whatever happens at schools these days)
GordonG Jul 2016 9:56pm, 5 Jul 2016 6,899 posts	0 GordonG To sum up: Many of you have mentioned the added complication of surface area getting wet depending on the angle my son rides his bike. Spray and splashing from vehicles might play an important part in real life calculations. The use of an umbrella, hat, kagoule or other rain deflecting device has proved popular suggestions, but factoring in angles, splashing and anti-rain devices into the calculations will cause my brain to go into complete overload. I can vouch from personal experience over the past two weeks that it seems to always be raining at going to/coming home from school/work time. A lot. So much so that my cycling shoes actually smell of damp now. Not moistness, but proper dampness. CtPs link suggests you get hit by fewer drops if you move faster, thought to be fair that decision was based on some guy’s experiment in his back garden, by the sounds of it! Rosehip’s link to the Discovery Channel ties in with Greg’s in that it references Mythbuster’s conclusion that faster = less wet. GregP’s wonderfully illustrated link suggests moving quicker is better, with the added bonus of providing a formula: Total wetness = (wetness per second X time spent in rain) + (wetness per meter X meters traveled). So, what can we conclude from this debate? 1 – my son was right: cycling seems to be the least wettest option. But I won’t be admitting this to him 2 – he is unlikely to wear a pac-a-mac, with or without a built in umbrella like the Dutch 3 – FE.com rocks! Cheers guys.
BaronessBL Jul 2016 9:33am, 6 Jul 2016 5,629 posts	0 BaronessBL Excellent Can he perhaps get the bus when it rains?
GordonG Jul 2016 9:36am, 6 Jul 2016 6,901 posts	0 GordonG funnily enough, no he can't! even though it's only a mile or so to school it's not on a direct bus route and he would have to take at least 2 busses to get to school by which time he could have walked there, rain or no rain!
The Teaboy Jul 2016 9:44am, 6 Jul 2016 14,315 posts	0 The Teaboy You can only achieve a level of maximum wetness - scientifically known as being completely fcuking soaked. If you reach this level you can't get any wetter. There is also the question of whether the absorption rate of water is linear or not or whether as you approach the state of maximum soppage that the final rate of increase to the limit of drenchedness slows down or not. I presume there is some scientific paper out there (Journal of Shite Weather Studies perhaps?) where someone has plotted these absorption curves.
The Teaboy Jul 2016 9:45am, 6 Jul 2016 14,316 posts	0 The Teaboy What that means is, if you achieve this level in the cycling (in 1/4) of the time, you can't get wetter in the full length of time in the walking, because you are already as bloody soaked as you can ever be.