How are we able to regain balance by flailing our limbs?
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When you move a limb one way, it pushes off the rest of your body (Newton’s third law, each action has an equal and opposite reaction). If you’re only a bit off balance, moving the limb might push your body just enough to get back into balance.
Sometimes when we are walking or standing, we might lose balance and start to fall down. When this happens, our body automatically tries to recover and get back to a stable position. One way we do this is by flailing our arms and legs.
Think of it like a tightrope walker. When a tightrope walker starts to lose their balance, they swing their arms and legs in the opposite direction to help them stay upright. Our body does the same thing, but we don’t have a tightrope. Instead, our body flails when we lose balance to try and keep us from falling.
By flailing, our body shifts its weight and moves into a more stable position. This helps us regain our balance and prevents us from falling over. It’s like a little dance our body does to stay upright.
If you’re about to tip over and fall off a cliff, you throw your arms toward the cliff, and the reaction force of this will send the rest of your body moving in the opposite direction. The faster you throw your arms, the higher the force throwing you back away from the cliff will be, and the more likely you’ll avoid falling off.
because of moment of inertia. when you extend your arm you gain the ability to create more torque from the same amount of motion, than if you keep your arm close.
Flailing your arms rapidly increases the amount of feedback to the sensory network that creates your sense of [proprioception](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprioception) i.e. your body knowing where it is and what it’s doing. That allows your body to more quickly and efficiently make reflexive movements to prevent a fall.
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