A researcher in Britain claims "Cow-tipping" is an "rural myth." (Ht: MickeyMooseMU) Apparently no cows were harmed as a part of the study. But as we read further, we discover that it might be possible for some drunken idiots to do a bovine gravity experiment after all.Ms Boechler, now a trainee forensics analyst for the Royal Canadian Mounted Corps, concluded in her initial report that a cow standing with its legs straight would require five people to exert the required force to bowl it over.They even have a handy-dandy diagram if you're planning on doing any cow-tipping yourself (at right).
A cow of 1.45 metres in height pushed at an angle of 23.4 degrees relative to the ground would require 2,910 Newtons of force, equivalent to 4.43 people, she wrote.
Dr Lillie, Ms Boechler’s supervisor, revised the calculations so that two people could exert the required amount of force to tip a static cow, but only if it did not react.
“The static physics of the issue say . . . two people might be able to tip a cow,” she said. “But the cow would have to be tipped quickly — the cow’s centre of mass would have to be pushed over its hoof before the cow could react.”
For those of you who can't help yourselves, virtual cow-tipping is available.
