Backpack Weight and the Scaling of the Human Frame

• Autores: Michael O'Shea
• Localización: The Physics Teacher, ISSN 0031-921X, Vol. 52, Nº. 8, 2014, pág. 479
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Modeling real-life situations is an important part of introductory physics. Here we consider the question “What is the largest weight of backpack a hiker can manage?” A quick perusal of the Internet suggests that as the weight of a healthy adult increases, the largest backpack weight Wbp also increases and should be about 25–30% of a person's body weight for a reasonably fit adult.1 We show here that a careful modeling of the hiker and backpack leads to a somewhat different result, with hikers of sufficiently large (but otherwise healthy) weight not being able to carry as much backpack weight as hikers of smaller weight.