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A Man Can Run Faster Than A Horse

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KeyserXSoze

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http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040612/80/evs2t.html
Saturday June 12, 08:18 PM

Man beats horse

LONDON (Reuters) - Runner Huw Lobb, 27, has made history after he became the first man to win Britain's annual man v horse marathon.

The previous 24 runnings around the 35-km course raced over countryside and moorland round the small mid-Wales town of Llanwrtyd Wells had all been won by a horse.

But South Londoner Lobb, a regular marathon runner, broke through to triumph in two hours five minutes 19 seconds and pick up the 25,000-pounds winner's cheque on Saturday.

The first horse home in 2:07:36 was Kay Bee Jay, ridden by Zoe White. Two years ago a runner came within a few seconds of victory but bookmakers William Hill still offered 16-1 against a man winning Saturday's race.

A record 566 runners from Britain and other parts of Europe took part, challenging 47 horses and their riders.

The result completed a sad double for the equine species. Earlier this month, a greyhound beat a racehorse in a special match race over 400 metres at Kempton Park, near London.

The greyhound, called Simply Fabulous, scorched home seven (horse) lengths clear in 23 seconds.
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I assume that was a Thoroughbred it was racing against? Put it up against a Quarter Horse. :D
 
the horse has been dope tested, passed it, and has been offered a place in the english team for the olympics :D
 
Right, this is a vague memory from childhood, I think I read it in an Eric Laithwaite book of science for kids, but there was a bit in it that said the idea horses can run faster than humans was not necessarily so, and went on to prove it with science.

It showed somehow that a man could run faster than a horse, but I'll be darned if I can recall how. If it is a really obvious and hackneyed bit of myth-undermining then I apologise, but does anyone know anything about this?
 
Over an identical short sprint distance, perhaps just (weight-to-power ratios, maybe). But over middle/longer distances, impossible. Surely, four legs good, two legs bad (in this and certain other contexts)
 
I wonder if Laithwaite was talking about Persistence Hunting; the idea that humans can catch four-legged prey eventually by continually chasing them to the point of exhaustion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_hunting
Persistence hunting is a hunting technique in which hunters use a combination of running, walking,[1] and tracking to pursue prey to the point of exhaustion. While humans can sweat to reduce body heat, their quadrupedal prey would need to slow from a gallop in order to pant.[2]

Today, persistence hunting is very rare and seen only in a few groups such as Kalahari bushmen and the Tarahumara or Raramuri people of Northern Mexico. The technique requires endurance running – running long distances for extended periods of time - and among primates, endurance running is only seen in humans. Persistence hunting is thought to have been one of the earliest forms of human hunting, having evolved 2 million years ago.
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During the persistence hunt an antelope, such as a kudu, is not shot or speared from a distance, but simply run down in the midday heat. Depending on the specific conditions, hunters of the central Kalahari will chase a kudu for about two to five hours over 25 to 35 km (16 to 22 mi) in temperatures of about 40 to 42 °C (104 to 108 °F). The hunter chases the kudu, which then runs away out of sight. By tracking it down at a fast running pace the hunter catches up with it before it has had enough time to rest in the shade. The animal is repeatedly chased and tracked down until it is too exhausted to continue running. The hunter then kills it at close range with a spear.
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What would work with a kudu ( a very fast quadruped) could work with a horse as well.
 
I have heard tales of Native Americans outrunning horses over short distances, although how true this is I don't know.
The fastest human speed recorded is 27.78 mph, whereas the fastest horse speed recorded is 43.97.
So...over a long distance, the horse would win.
It might be possible that humans accelerate to a sprint faster.
 
That's not the way it works. The human hunters chase the animal until it is out of sight, then track it until they catch up with it again. Eventualy the animal seems to get tired of the chase before the humans do.
 
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GNC said:
Right, this is a vague memory from childhood, I think I read it in an Eric Laithwaite book of science for kids....
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Did the book make any reference to his (in)famous electromagnetic levitation train systems? I used to love his TV demos of the technique, so matter-of-fact. He was, himself, a scientific superconductor.
 
eburacum said:
That's not the way it works. The human hunters chase the animal until it is out of sight, then track it until they catch up with it again. Eventualy the animal seems to get tired of the chase before the humans do.
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I was talking about a direct sprint race between horse and man, not the hunting scenario you mentioned.
 
Ermintrude said:
Did the book make any reference to his (in)famous electromagnetic levitation train systems? I used to love his TV demos of the technique, so matter-of-fact. He was, himself, a scientific superconductor.
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I loved all of his presentations and the way he directly challenged the scientific establishment.
Too bad he's no longer with us.
 
Mythopoeika said:
I was talking about a direct sprint race between horse and man, not the hunting scenario you mentioned.
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Indeed. But I'm trying to think of all possible ways in which a human might run faster than a horse. I can only think of two; a human might start off running faster than a horse, since the horse is more massive and would take longer to get up to speed. But I would be very surprised if this advantage was useful over a distance of more than two or three metres.
The other one is the Persistence Hunting scenario - a human might eventually 'run the horse down', chase it until it gave up hope.
 
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Jesse Owens was reduced to offering exhibition races against horses. On at least one occasion, he crossed the line first, but I don't know any more than that: he may have had a long start, the horse may have been nobbled, etc. and so on.
 
GNC said:
Right, this is a vague memory from childhood, I think I read it in an Eric Laithwaite book of science for kids, but there was a bit in it that said the idea horses can run faster than humans was not necessarily so, and went on to prove it with science.

It showed somehow that a man could run faster than a horse, but I'll be darned if I can recall how. If it is a really obvious and hackneyed bit of myth-undermining then I apologise, but does anyone know anything about this?
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I think Alf Tupper could outrun a horse.
 
Couldn't it simply be about how many body lengths you move per second? There's a type of beetle, which can run so many lengths of it's own body per second that it's equivalent to a human running faster than the speed of sound.
 
I'm trying to remember the diagram that went with the article, if I recall right it had something like a rabbit, a dog, a man and a horse, all to prove somehow the man would win. It might have been to do with the man starting ahead of the horse so for a while he would indeed be running faster, or it might have been to do with the ratio between their body strength and speed, like how an ant could lift a car if he was the size of a man. It doesn't sound very likely, so it's frustrating I can't recall the details he used to prove it.
 
GNC said:
like how an ant could lift a car if he was the size of a man.
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I can't help you with the Man v Horse factoid, but I did read somewhere that ants make up 10% of the biomass and that an ant can lift 10x it's own weight. So theoretically, ants (en masse) could lift every other living thing on the planet above their heads.

That's bollocks isn't it? Got to be.
 
GNC said:
So a mite can run faster than a man?
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Yeah, if it were just a matter of bodylength. If a very fast superhero (like the Flash or Quicksilver) were to run very fast they'd soon be tumbling all over the place - a two-legged running gait is not the best way to maintain a very high speed. I think that a man-sized mite might have a better chance of breaking the sound barrier.
 
Unfortunately a man-sized mite wouldn't be able to breathe. So man would win! Result!
 
I think Myth has already answered this one - a man can't run faster than a horse to the tune of around 15mph. Next!
 
Ok, if anyone can find a copy of Laithwaite's book Why Does a Glowworm Glow? and turn to the appropriate page, all this could be answered. Or maybe not, if he was dealing in umpteen caveats.
 
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