The stunt
St. Louis has 79 neighborhoods. Most people have been to a dozen. I'm riding into every one of them between sunrise and midnight, with a checkpoint and a photo in each.
The work
Building the route. Scouting the rough pavement. Finding somebody in every part of town who'll hold a charger and a checkpoint sign.
The night
The whole day is the event. Each neighborhood gets its own checkpoint, and the 79th gets the party.
Solve the Jump
What's the shortest route that touches all 79, and does the battery make it?
This is a famous math problem: the shortest path through many points. Then it's an energy budget. Miles times watt-hours per mile has to fit in the battery, or you plan the charging stops.
Students draw a route on the city map and total the miles. Shortest legal route wins. Then: with a 2,000 Wh battery at 30 Wh per mile, where do the charging stops go?
The physicsEnergy needed = route miles × watt-hours per mile
What gets measured
- The GPS track, proving all 79
- Total miles, ride time and stopped time
- Energy used and every charge stop
What has to be true first
- A published route, so anyone can check it
- A host and a charger lined up in each part of town
- Daylight for the worst pavement