Climbing a slope involves mechanisms and energy use that change the way we navigate terrain.
โYou might think people walk the same way on all types of terrain, but when there's a change in elevation, things become much more complex,โ said Marcos Llobera, a researcher at the University of Washington, USA. โThere are slopes where it would be extremely exhausting to go straight up, so people tend to walk diagonally to reduce the steepness. Then they have to turn back to their original direction, which creates a zigzag pattern. The steeper the slope, the more important it is to find the right angle to walk.โ
Llobera and his colleague T.J. Sluckin from the University of Southampton in the UK developed a simple mathematical model that shows the zigzag path is the most efficient way to ascend or descend a steep slope.
However, most people donโt need a model to know this; they do it naturally without thinking.
