In article ,
wrote:

On Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:20:48 GMT, Ryan Cousineau
wrote:

In article ,
wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYTJ9v2vsaE

Surely someone on RBT will estimate the rollout (given the size of the
display) and calculate the actual speeds involved.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

You're a horrible person, Carl.

In order to get more precise control of the playback and higher quality
video, I downloaaded the good version, and started counting revolutions.

The odometer in the picture gains 0.01 "km" (eg 10 "m", or what the
movie-maker asserts is actually 1 m, in their notes on the video) every
3-4 revolutions. That would make the circumference of the wheel about 30
cm.

I'm satisfied that given the dimensions of generic hamsters and
cyclocomputers (I couldn't make out the brand name of this one), this is
reasonably close to true.

The one hamster manages a multi-second run at what would thus be about
6.5 km/h (speeds shown between 60 and 68 km/h for a few seconds) that
starts around the 23s mark.

Again, that seems like a plausible speed for a very small rodent moving
very quickly. More impressive was his cadence: the legs are an
unmeasurable blur at top speed.

BTW, the video is even funnier at half speed.

Dear Ryan,

Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "wheel ejection," doesn't it?

The nice thing is that the two hamsters hurl themselves into the
spinning trainer voluntarily--they think that it's so much fun that
they crowd into it together.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

I've always wondered what hamsters got out of hamster wheels, but the
behavior is clearly both voluntary and -- judging by the number of
hamster-wheel videos out there -- near-universal.

--
Ryan Cousineau http://www.wiredcola.com/
"In other newsgroups, they killfile trolls."
"In rec.bicycles.racing, we coach them."