Liegerad
Today I got to try a recument bike. It took a few tries until I was able to balance, but once I got going it was easier than I had imagined. I rode it for about half an hour in the fields (paved roads without car traffic) and was quite confident on it after that. I even managed to take a u-turn on the road without falling off. Fortunately, it had above seat steering – I hear that getting used to under seat steering is much more difficult. It felt a bit strange at first because the wheel you’re steering with is below you instead of in front, and you don’t see the direction of the wheel while turning – it looks like the bike keeps going straight forward because the front of the bike always points in that direction. Looking ahead instead of at the bike itself is key here, I found out.
And of course I now want my own recumbent – I think the Grasshopper (auch auf deutsch) by HPVelotechnik is cool.
And for future reference, here are two Ask MetaFilter threads about recumbent bikes: one, two.
Yeah, I would like to keep it. (Photos taken by my lovely husband, of course.)
P.S.: I can already feel the muscles that I used while riding the recumbent – they’re different from the ones you use while riding an upright bike. In German we call this Muskelkater, literally muscle tomcat. 
Don’t try this at home, kids!
André and I are moving in a couple of days. Our new flat is going to have a much nicer kitchen than the old one, and it will have more room, so we’re considering buying a microwave oven. I guess you can use it for cooking, but the child physics teacher in me also wants to do some experiments… here are a few links:
- unwise microwave oven experiments by William Beaty
- Fun with grapes – a case study. By Patrick Michaud.
- Physics inside a microwave oven (link to page in frameset), by Maarten Rutgers.
- Microwave experiments by Hans Hochwald.
- Funny things to do with your microwave oven by We-Man/Stefan.
I don’t remember if the experiment is even on one of the pages, but I want to start by showing the “hot spots” of the oven by placing a sheet of heat-sensitive paper (like fax paper) in the oven. I’m told it also works with a bunch of marshmallows – that’s probably more fun than fax paper.
Wow!
… or rather, Math that makes you go Wow, “a multi-disciplinary exploration of non-orientable surfaces”. It’s too late now, so I’ll have to read it tomorrow.
Link via MetaFilter.