Mathematics proves the silliness of "silly walks"

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2007

PARIS (AFP) — Scientists have explained mathematically why the famous "silly walks" of Monty Python's John Cleese have never caught on in the long history of Homo sapiens.

The giant, leg-twirling strides of silly walks may enable an individual to leap around swiftly but are simply too expensive in metabolic energy compared to conventional locomotion, according to a paper published on Wednesday by Britain's Royal Society.

Manoj Srinavasan and Andy Ruina, researchers in applied mechanics at New York's Cornell University, drew up a geometrical model of human walking and running.

They found that, in essence, each leg is a "telescoping actuator" that can change its length.

In walking, the body vaults forwards in circular arcs, driven forward by the...