Why is it easier to balance a long pole (like a broom handle) on my palm that it is to balance a short stick on my palm?

Question

Why is it easier to balance a long pole (like a broom handle) on my palm that it is to balance a short stick on my palm?

In: 68

Answer 1

Imagine a large ball with a stick poking out out of the bottom. If the stick points straight down, it will balance.

If the stick is at an angle where the bottom of the stick is further to the side than the edge of the ball, it will definitely fall over.

If the stick is short, the end can be moved past the edge of the ball really quickly and the stick will be at a pretty extreme angle. If it’s long it takes a bit longer to move past the edge and the stick will only have a small angle.

The long stick, means you can make small slower adjustments to keep the end of the stick under the ball and keep it balanced.

With a short stick, when it becomes unbalanced, the angle of the stick is so great, you have to make big movements to try and bring it back, which makes it really easy to over correct and make it worse.

So a long stick gives you much finer control and more forgiving to overcorrection. The same amount of movement the puts the long stick at an angle of only a few degrees off vertical, will put a short stick close to horizontal.

There is more to it, but this is the best ELI5 I can come up with.