CBSE Class 11-science Answered

A bicycle is statically unstable because it only has two contact points with the ground (whatever portion of the front and back wheels happen to be touching the ground) and its base of support is a line segment. A good base of support needs at least three contact points with the ground, so bicycles are hard to keep upright when they're still. Bicycles are, however, dynamically stable, or stable when moving forward, because steering allows a rider to move the bicycle's points of support around under the center of gravity and keep it balanced, often with steering adjustments small enough that the rider may not even realize they're making them. It's sort of like standing on one foot. If you don't hop around a little, and you start falling sideways, you can't recover and you fall over. If you do hop, though, you can move your foot around to keep your center of gravity above it and keep your balance.