Every four years, the stakes get higher for figure skaters at the Olympics as they try to increase rotation in the air with their triple axels and quadruple toe loops. Figure skating is one of the most demanding sports at the Olympics.
It is a complicated skill with a lot of different motions. Skaters need to optimize a lot of different conditions – speed, force, vertical velocity and angular momentum. All with exact timing.
Angular momentum is an important piece of jumping in skating. It determines how fast a skater can rotate. The more angular momentum, the higher the potential to spin.
Skaters generate angular momentum by pushing off the ice with their skates.
Pushing off the ice also generates vertical velocity. Vertical velocity gets a skater high enough in the air to do the spin by producing forces from the jump during takeoff.
What happens is an action and a reaction. As the leg muscles contract and the leg pushes down against the ice, the ice creates a force that pushes back on the legs, creating vertical velocity. The more velocity a
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Team USA’s four-man bobsledding team is hoping to win their first gold in more than 60 years during the Vancouver Winter Olympics.
Bobsledding got its name in the 1890s in Switzerland because riders bobbed back and forth to increase their speed.
Today’s bobsledders use precision moves and a knowledge of physics to maximize velocity – the speed of the bobsled as it races downhill.
Acceleration is the increasing of the bobsled’s velocity. It begins during the 50-meter start when the team’s feet push against the ice to pick up speed. The team gets the bobsled moving by pushing the sled with maximum force.
While they are in the push stage, everything the bobsledders do is important. This is the riders’ only chance to apply force. There isn’t a way for them to apply more force once they are in the sled. If they can can go faster by even a tenth of a second at the top of the course, they can maintain an advantage all the way down the track.
Believe it or not, snowboarding is a study in potential and kinetic energy. The athletes who maximize both kinds of energy are the ones on the medal podium at the Vancouver Olympics.
Twelve years ago, snowboarding made its debut as an Olympic sport. The sport isn’t just about crazy lingo, going fast and jumping high. The athletes use the laws of gravity to build speed and keep their balance. They also use physics to gain speed and height in jumps.
The physics of snowboarding uses dynamic balance. When the snowboarder is in motion moving up and down the ramps, their balance is different than if they were just going down a slope.
As gravity pulls the snowboarders down the halfpipe, they gain speed. At the same time, they are being pushed against the sides by contact forces.
Snowboarders push back against the G-forces and build speed by pumping their legs up and down. By standing up against the extra forces in the curve, snowboarders add to their kinetic energy – the energy of motion. It gives them the speed
