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    Re: [RC] Tripping horses (thoughts while loading hay on a trailer) - Truman Prevatt


    Yep you are transferring energy you are generating through muscle movement to move back and forth to the rocking horse or swing which causes you and the object to move. You are doing work. The rocking horse is in a unstable equilibrium and any slight shift of your center of gravity will move the equilibrium point on the rocker. If the rocker was flat instead of bowed, the equilibrium would be stable and it would be very difficult to move. Now the lever, when horses front feet are off the ground the fulcrum of the lever is his hind feet. Think of another play ground item here, the seesaw. Here you are sitting between the pivot point (fulcrum) and the end. Here the front end of the horse is the end of the seesaw nearest you and the pivot point is the fulcrum (the hind legs of the horse. Now have some one lift you up, and let the end go. There is no way other than putting your feet on the ground that you can keep the seesaw from hitting the ground.

    Since all object falls at the same speed ( a 1000 pound weight and a 1 pound weight dropped at the same time from the same height will hit the ground at the same time), the only thing sitting back will do is reduce the weight the horse has to lift when he gets his feet back under him (and maybe keep you from going over onto your head).

    Truman

    Ed and Wendy Hauser wrote:



    The difference is that in both cases center of gravity of you and the object
    is right under you. By leaning back you move your center of gravity (an
    engineers term for the point where your weight acts) behind the center of
    gravity of the rocking horse. Since you and the rocking horse are about the
    same weight, the total center of gravity is now behind the vertical and the
    rocking horse moves. On a tripping horse, the front legs are no longer
    supporting his weight. His support point is somewhere near the back leggs.
    His center of gravity is quite a bit forward, so he starts to fall. When
    you lean back (note that the pulling on the head does nothing) you do move
    your center of gravity back, but it will still be forward of the rear legs.
    The net effect is a small reduction in the force pulling him towards the
    ground. Since you weigh at most 20% of your horses weight, the help you can
    possibly give by leaning way back is small.


    Ed.
    Ed and Wendy Hauser
    1140 37th Street
    Hudson, WI 54016
    715.386.0465
    sisufarm@xxxxxxxxxx






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    [RC] Tripping horses (thoughts while loading hay on a trailer), Ed and Wendy Hauser