: How come giraffes don’t fall over all the time?
In: Biology
They have a very low center of gravity. The vast majority of their mass is low to the ground relative to the rest of their body, and that keeps them sturdy.
They stand on 4 legs, they’re much more stable than us bipeds.
We could ask why we don’t fall over all the time.
If you look at their shape, you’ll see that most of their body weight is directly over the four feet, it’s just their neck and head that goes outside of that firm platform of centre of gravity.
For the same reason people don’t fall over all the time. When you think about it people are even narrower compared to their height than giraffes, especially in the forward-back direction. But we’ve developed brains and nervous systems that help us balance despite these challenges.
You are comparing their legs to their neck, basically. Yes they have very long necks, but that does not mean they have a low center of gravity. It’s certainly the highest of any animal I can think of.
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