Determination and limitation of efforts in transportation by human pushing

Abstract

Technical standards require that the lifting and transportation of weights by workers without equipment be limited to between 40 and 60 kilograms. However, there are no limits for the act of pushing. This work shows how to find the unknown values of such acts and prove that they are frequently well above the working capacity of the human body. This ability varies from 10.5 kgm/s to 100 kgm/s, according as if the effort is exerted during 8 hours or 4 seconds, respectively, as shown at the end of this paper.