Freewheeling three-wheeler
QUESTION A three-legged stool is more stable than one with four legs, so why is a car with three wheels less stable than one with four?
A three-legged stool is not more stable than one with four, it simply does not rock in an irritating manner when placed on an uneven surface.
With the same spacing between the legs, it is easier to push over a threelegged stool than one with four legs.
When a four-wheeled car goes round a corner, centrifugal force causes it to lean, putting more weight on the wheels on the outside of the corner and less on those on the inside.
At some speeds, the outside wheels will be supporting the entire weight of the car and the inside wheels will lift off the ground. Any increase in speed will cause the car to roll over.
Usually, the weight of the car is not evenly distributed, the front being heavier than the rear because of the engine.
Consequently, the front wheel on the outside of the corner carries more than its share of the weight. the rear wheel on the inside of the corner carries the least and is the first to lift off the ground.
In the case of a three-wheeled car, if it has two wheels at the front and the engine is at the front, then the stability is almost as good as for a four-wheeled car.
the centrifugal force trying to turn the car over is resisted directly by the front wheel on the outside of the corner.
however, if the two wheels are at the rear, but the engine is still near the front — as in the reliant three-wheelers or the Bond Bug — stability is much reduced.
the single front wheel is unable to react effectively against the centrifugal force trying to overturn the car.
A work colleague always carried a heavy toolbox on the passenger side of his reliant to balance things up, shifting it to the rear when he had a passenger.
I used to have two Bond Minicars, an MkB and an MkF — the manufacturers, Sharp’s Commercials ( no relation), produced a new model every year. they had two wheels at the back and the engine at the front.
Crucially, the driver and passengers sat
almost over the rear wheels, aiding stability, and the engine was much lighter than the one in reliants.
I toured the country from land’s end to John O’groats in a three- wheeler. Sometimes I had three adults on the front bench seat and two children aged ten and 14 on the more rudimentary seats in the back.
People who saw us getting out said it was like watching a circus act where an unfeasibly large number of clowns clamber out of a very small car.
Denis Sharp, Littlehampton, W. Sussex.
QUESTION What’s the strangest New Year’s resolution made and kept?
A POPUlAr one in Scotland is to do the Proclaimers — that is, to walk 500 miles. this is pretty easy as you only need to walk 1.37 miles a day.
this year I’m going for the Pretenders — 2,000 miles. that’s 5.48 miles a day and is guaranteed to improve fitness.
resolutions that have given me real pleasure are to put away freshly laundered clothes as soon as they are dry and folded, make the bed first thing and stop wasting food. And I learned to juggle.
Cathy Price, Worcester.
QUESTION Are any mythical figures said to live at the South Pole?
the North Pole has always been a place wreathed in mystery. Not only is it the home of Santa, but the Inuit tribes who live there have a complex mythology based on a variety of monsters including
Amarok the giant wolf; the monster tupilaq, a symbol of vengeance; and the shape-shifting, child kidnapper Ijiraq.
every culture has a mythology, so it’s small wonder that the imagination runs wild in the icy wastes of the North Pole.
this land has been populated for millennia, unlike the harsh desert of Antarctica, which has no permanent inhabitants from which a mythology could arise.
that was until 2007, when Japanese sailors began spotting Ningen (meaning human). these huge, white creatures are said to reach 90 ft long.
eyewitnesses describe them as having humanoid eyes and mouths, but the descriptions of their bodies vary.
they may have fins, or arms and legs, or sometimes arms and fins instead of lower limbs, like a mermaid.
explanations range from sea fog, icebergs, whales, dolphins, rays or, perhaps, too much grog.
Mystery writers have turned their imaginations to the South Pole. edgar Allan Poe’s novel the Narrative Of Arthur gordon Pym Of Nantucket features a strange land called tsalal hidden in Antarctica.
h. P. lovecraft’s horror novella At the Mountains Of Madness is about awaking a great evil in the ruins of an ancient, non-human Antarctic civilisation. Charles Forsyth, Pinner, Middx.
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