Scientists Discover How To Stop Luggage From Toppling On the Race Through the Airport (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Scientists have worked out why suitcases tend to to rock violently from one wheel to the other until they overturn on the race through the airport. This most pressing of modern mysteries was taken on by physicists in Paris, who devised a scale model of a two-wheeled suitcase rolling on a treadmill and backed up their observations with a pile of equations and references to holonomic restraints, finite perturbations and the morphing of bifurcation diagrams. Fortunately for non-physicists, the findings can be reduced to simpler terms. For the suitcase to rock it had to hit a bump or be struck in some other manner; the faster the suitcase was being pulled, the more minor the bump needed to set it off. So far, so obvious. But Sylvain Courrech du Pont wanted to know more. Why did a rocking suitcase swerve and make such violent movements that it might eventually topple over? After more treadmill tests and more equations, the answer popped up: because a suitcase's handle pulls from the middle and the wheels are at its sides, the suitcase swerves inwards whenever it tilts up on one wheel. If the rocking overcomes the dampening effect that happens when each wheel touches the ground again, the suitcase will keep on rocking or eventually flip over. In conclusion, the researchers discovered that "when a suitcase starts to rock out of control, the correct response is not to slow down but to pull it faster." The scientists have published their findings in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society.

Comments

Or just get one that has 4 wheels

[chuckugly]

Or just get one that has 4 wheels and don't look like a dork

Re:Or just get one that has 4 wheels

[ad454]

Not all women are weightlifters.

Most including myself have difficulties carrying nearly 23 kg (50 lb) over long distances quickly, through public transit, long sidewalks, crowded places, etc., along with a separate carryon.

Keep in mind that when is travelling overseas for a month or more, in strange and undeveloped places, with different dress codes, and in different climates, you need to carry a lot with you that you cannot easily buy there. Not to mention that the custom in many places to bring thoughtful gifts from your home.

Just like trailers

[Sir Holo]

The same physical principal applies to two-wheeled trailers pulled by cars with a hitch.

Have you ever seen someone driving down an interstate, two-wheeled U-Haul or similar trailer in tow behind their Honda Civic? I sure have. I back off, and watch while the driver tries various maneuvers. The trailer will start to swing side-to-side. Then it will start skipping from side-to-side. Then I get bored and pass... two lanes over. Never once has one of them simply decelerated and pulled over to the shoulder.

Re:Just like trailers

[drinkypoo]

Some asshole cut her off, and she instinctively hit the brake. My dad was yelling at her to hit the gas... to no avail. We jacknifed and flipped.

Your parents were the assholes. They either had too much trailer for not having trailer brakes, or the trailer brakes were misadjusted, or the tow vehicle was in some other way inadequate.

Is anyone running through airports in 2017?

[93 Escort Wagon]

I would think that would get you shot, nowadays.

Re:Driving a Trailer

[Anonymous Coward]

he only thing preventing this scientific breakthrough was the apparent inability to intersect the community of truckers and physicists despite their relative interdependencies.

There is a huge difference between knowing about something and understanding it. Equations of motion for nontrivial situations can get messy fast, and often beyond a few simple general methods, a lot of cookbook, situation-specific methods are used. Expanding upon those cookbook methods is still useful, and sometimes has applications in other situations.