Wouldn't it make more sense to have the wheel of the wheelbarrow directly under the tray, rather than at the end where it makes it harder to lift?
Also, did you know that Britain's WWII debt to the US was only fully repaid in 2006?
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13 comments:
You do understand how a lever works?
Benny
Possibly not. But wouldn't the wheel take all the weight this way, so all you have to do is push it forward, which you have to do anyway?
I'm thinking of deleting this post from the blog.
Hmm. I don't recall considering the how and why of a wheelbarrow.
Ok, taking Ben's lever note, a wheelbarrow works as a lever with the wheel as the fulcrum. This is a second class lever, where the load is between the fulcrum and the place where effort is applied.
So we're able to lift a mass by raising it with less force than without the lever... (we move the handles around the fulcrum and the load moves around the fulcrum the same amount of degrees, but because it's closer to the fulcrum it's arc is less distance than the arc made when moving the handle) Okay, cool. Got that. Makes it easier to lift.
We're really concerning ourselves with lifting, not pushing, so the rest of the detail about the wheel can be ignored.
But why not put the fulcrum under the wheel? If the wheel was in the centre, it would act more like a see saw and rely on careful placement of the load.
And given my general understanding of a seesaw, a perfectly balanced seesaw even with a large weight is in fact easy to move an end up or down, so I'd say yes, it would be easier to 'lift' an end, but harder to control.
Yep, I agree with the common design of a wheelbarrow being harder to lift stuff Mr. Pos; but I'd say it means larger loads are made more stable. You could probably shift alot of weight over the wheel (usually the tray does angle over the wheel) in order to carry more if required, but you'll lose stability.
What about with longer handles? and some sort of kick-stand guard to stop it from falling over?
One stand already exists, a front stand would be annoying but possible (you'd want to kick the far stand away, so you could lower that side when raising your own; seesaw action again). I wouldn't suggest it, it seems like extra effort when the basic wheelbarrow solves this problem by not distributing load on the far side of the wheel.
Longer handles would make a wheelbarrow longer and further limit the places you could use it. For what gain? Well, you're really only lifting the wheelbarrow in order to stop dragging on a stand, so lifting higher isn't the issue. Sure, you could probably carry more. So, perhaps some trade off? A bit of extra length on the handles, a bit more over the wheel, when trying to carry excessive amounts?
I'm interested in how a wheelbarrow might move with more weight over the wheel (would that be more difficult? Tipping the wheebarrow would be easier, but you can't afford to have too longer tray on the far side otherwise there's not much tipping action). Send back a wooden wheelbarrow! ;-)
I was thinking longer handles not to lift the tray higher, but to make it easier to lift (levers) the same distance. Also I thought it would provide a little more stability and manoeuverability, but on second thought maybe not.
I imagine at rest the tray would be angled towards the ground at the handle end, and there would be the stand there as there is on normal wheelbarrows. Maybe some sort of safety stand either side of the wheel to prop it on the ground if it starts tipping?
How about a wheelbarrow where the balance of carrying weight is over and to each side of the wheel, with a little more over the far side, so you actually push down to "lift" it? This would solve the tipping issue, the worst thing that would happen would be it goes back to the sitting position with the handles up. And with the 'safety' kickstand might solve the instability issue.
This whole thing started because I saw some interesting big "wheelbarrows" they use for transporting goods around the street here, they're really long with the wheel about 2/3's of the length away from the handles, it seems sometimes they push down gently to get it moving, sometimes lift it up, but the balance of the weight is carried by the wheels (there's two, one on each side).
This is a bad description of the Indian wheelbarrows, I'll see if I can take a picture sometime, they carry an incredible amount of weight.
Also, I think the wheel under the tray would make things easier, but the major problem is stopping it from tipping to each side.
fascinating. Not.
It's a guy thing.
Believe me, Matt will be either sketching designs, modelling them on a computer, or building a damn wheelbarrow in his backyard right now.
Some pics:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:MumbaiIceCart_gobeirne.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:MumbaiIceCart
It all to do with weights and simple lever mechanics. The front wheel has a double chance of moving and shifting weight if it position is not exactly inline with the front of the carrier.
why are yiu asking about wheelbarrows?...What have u been doing?
Holy crap you guys, this is exactly what I was talking about...
http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/12/the-chinese-wheelbarrow.html#more
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