motorcycle science fair project

[caveman525]

Hello all,

My child is really into motorcycles and really wants to do a project that incorporates motorcycles. any help with project suggestions and/or steps for the experiment would be greatly appreciated. My initial thought was for her to do something about the forces that keep the bike upright while moving forward. unfortunately I am currently at a loss as where to go from here. PLEASE HELP!!

[deleted-2574]

Hi caveman525!

You can supply "How do motorcycles stay upright?" to answers.com and get a large number of web resources related to your topic. Hope these help.

[deleted-71395]

You didn't mention the age of your child, so it's hard to know what would be appropriate.

Some other ideas are looking at the parts of a motorcycle engine, how do shock absorbers work (they aren't just springs), how does a transmission and gear ratios work (do motorcycles have transmissions?), and how does a stunt motorcycle (the ones that do those huge jumps) differ from a normal motorcycle.

[bradleyshanrock-solberg]

I like your original idea.

Start with a google search to get the basic idea behind it.

Some quick poking found this discussion.

http://www.msgroup.org/forums/mtt/topic ... IC_ID=2195
and
http://www.msgroup.org/forums/mtt/topic ... IC_ID=2203

The short answer is "gyroscopic forces" help keep it steady (the wheels spin, making a kind of gyroscope). To understand why that helps, requires going down another road of inquiry. But in the context of science fair, after doing your research, you're going to want a variable that affects these forces (in general, size of wheel and spin speed) and this should be something you can work with.