E-bike physics

Image of German-designed e-bike via Wikimedia There's a new class of electric bicycles prompting oodles of attention, collecting millions of dollars in funding and providing little more than dust-collecting, spider web-encrusted racks in bike shops. Within the last five years, Panasonic and MIT unveiled e-bike prototypes, which boast batteries that can re-charge themselves through a process called regenerative braking. A regenerative brake reduces a vehicle's speed, thus expending energy, but in...