Why are treadmill only able to go 12 mph?
In: Engineering
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Very few people are able to run faster than that so there is no reason to allow it to go faster, and there is major legal risk to allow it to do so as the number of people injured would be high.
A treadmill is for practicing walking and endurance running.
The average walker goes 5 km/h.
A marathon can be done in just over 2 hours, making it 20 km/h.
With making it going up to 12 mph which is about 20 km/h, you have it working for the biggest group of people who you are catering for.
Why would it need to go faster?
The fastest human in the world Usain Bolt has topped out at just under 28mph and that is only for very short bursts. For the vast vast majority of use cases needing to go much faster than 12mph is not necessary and potentially dangerous.
**Nigel**: This is the top to, uh, you know, what we use on stage, but it’s very, very special because, if you can see, the numbers all go to eleven. Look… (pointing at the amp dials), right across the board. Eleven, eleven, eleven and then…
**Marty**: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten.
**Nigel**: Exactly.
**Marty**: Does that mean it’s louder? Is it any louder?
**Nigel**: Well, it’s one louder, isn’t it? It’s not ten. You see, most, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten – you’re on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up – you’re on ten on your guitar, where can you go from there? Where?
**Marty**: I don’t know.
**Nigel**: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
**Marty**: Put it up to eleven.
**Nigel**: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
**Marty**: Why don’t you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
**Nigel**: (pause) These go to eleven.
It’s dangerous. Slipping on a treadmill can really mess you up (a friend got a gnarly goose egg on legs once from messing around on a treadmill). A faster treadmill makes it harder to keep up (consistent 12 mph pace is pretty fast) increasing the chances of falling. If you’re trying to be as speedy as possible your best venue for training is on a track while the treadmill is good for low impact aerobic exercise.
Even leaving aside reasonable use cases for a treadmill and assuming there are a lot of people out there who want to run faster, it wouldn’t be safe on a standard treadmill frame. If someone using a treadmill pauses or stumbles, they have until the tread rolls around the back to compensate, or else they fall off and potentially hurt themselves. The faster the treadmill is going, the shorter this grace period is. Eventually it starts to get shorter than a reasonable human reaction time. At that point, your options are either to cap the speed or make the treadmill longer.
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