On Thu, 19 Dec 2013, Onno Meyer wrote:
Johannes replied to me:
I did not mean, that motivating many workers is easier then motivating
few, but that motivating many workers is easy, compared to coordinating
many workers. Which means you have a hard time to get the full ST of all,
even if you motivate them well.
But 50 people could be ten people each pulling on five ropes, or
hitching their harness to five chains. That isn't excessive, I'd
say. What are the modern precedents for people-drawn vehicles?
All teams need to start at the same time, and go at the same speed. Or you
have efficiency losses at best.
There is that picture from the Volga by Repin.
Antarctic explorers and soldiers on the WWII eastern front pulled
several hundred pounds on sleds.
Seems nobody uses human teams for large loads any more. Because
we have better technology now?
And labour got expensive. And in many applications you are better off with
wheelbarrows or pallet jacks.
But my original worry was about the speed, which also applies for
smaller teams with smaller loads. Take 1 ton pulled by 5 guys with
ST 10 each. 6 mph, right?
My experience with pulling stuff is quite limited and the weights and
it is an effort to put a RL picture to weights and speeds so i am somewhat
hazy here.
But my gut feeling would say, if you can move it at all, you are likely to
get to slide friction as well, and then you can go at some speed. If you
do that with a sled with a heavy load that would be a very unsafe thing to
do.
Also with wheelbarrows with heavy loads, i would say constrainsts for safe
use kick in, before you get to theorethical top speeds.
What type of ground did you assume? With sleds i would assume, that even
very minor unevennesses can have a big effect. And a surface, where humans
have good traction (without footwear that slows them down), and that is
not suboptimal for sleds would be rare i suppose.
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