The Olympics may be over, but teachers and parents are still using the science behind the games to educate children.
Ice skating is a classic lesson in physics. When an ice skater spins, they are using angular momentum. In a spin, their arms act as weights. When arms are extended, the skater spins slowly. When the skater changes their moment of inertia and bring their arms into their body, they spin faster.
I brought this demonstration to Becky Ditchfield on the morning newscast. It’s my rule to never practice ahead of time with Becky. So, what you see on TV is the first time she’s ever seen the demo. I guess she’s sensitive to getting dizzy because she could barely read the teleprompter at the end of the segment. If I hadn’t of caught her, she would have spun into a half million dollar camera.
Curling became an Olympic sport in 1998. It’s an unusual sport to many.
The sport involves one player thrusting a huge “rock” or stone down a sheet of ice. Two other players sweep a path, guiding the rock to the center of the target called the “house.” At the end of play, the team with the most rocks near the center of the house is the winner.
Getting a curling stone from the start to the house is all physics. Force and friction is what makes it all work.
It all starts with a push out of a “hack.” The curler positions their foot to push out of the hack with a lot of force to accelerate with the curling rock. The curler’s force is then transferred to the rock.
Then the sweepers take over. The brush they use is made from a synthetic material that has a little abrasiveness. The objective of sweeping is to make the rock go farther and very slightly alter the rock’s path.
When curling began and was a sport outside, the brushes
Flying down a ramp at speeds over 60 miles per hour, jumping off the edge, gliding through the air and then landing two football fields away is what Olympic ski jumpers do everyday.
Ski jumping requires a complex manipulation of forces – gravity, drag and lift.
A ski jumper has two contradictory missions with two very different positions. One is to get down the ramp or inrun as fast as possible, gaining maximum speed. The second is to takeoff into the air and fly as far as possible.
As a ski jumper hurdles down the inrun, they try to gain speed. The air around them creates resistance. To minimize the drag, a skier needs to be in a streamlined position – chest parallel to the snow, head down and arms back.
When the skier reaches take off, their body needs to readjust and change position. In a tenth of a second, the skier straightens upward and leans forward to maximize lift. Once in the air, the skier isn’t concerned with drag, but is instead working to use the air to lift
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