Olympic athletes wear special competition clothing to gain an edge in their sport. Science & technology continues to improve the clothes and protective gear they wear.
In the bobsled, downhill racing and speed skating, athletes want to go faster. How do they do it? Hard work, physical training, the right equipment and fast clothes made of special aerodynamic material all contribute. Clothes are engineered to enhance performance and reduce drag.
All Olympic suits start in the lab with synthetic polymer materials and molecules called monomers. Engineers string the monomers together to make polymers. A long polymer chain is strong.
Chemical engineers decide which monomers to use and how to connect them to make different materials for different uses. Spandex is lightweight and flexible for suits while Kevlar is strong yet lightweight for skis and helmets.
Even wind resistance can be engineered into a clothing design. Sometimes, a rougher surface can have less drag than a smooth surface helping an athlete go faster. Golf balls are designed with dimples to go farther. The dimples create whirlpools or tiny vortexes of air
It might not be as obvious as physics or materials engineering, but math from arithmetic to calculus can describe every move the athletes make from jumps to spins on the snow and ice.
Math counts in the Olympics. There are 2,500 athletes competing in 86 sports and events to win 252 medals at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. But these are only the base numbers in the games.
Math is all around in scores and measurements, motion and quantities. It can be as easy as how many hockey players are on the ice? Or how many times has the puck gone into the net?
Scoring in ice skating involves arithmetic. Addition is only part of the scoring. Each element is assigned points and then is judged on how well it is performed. A triple axle is worth three points, but the judges will also rate the overall performance and artistry of the skater.
Nine judges give scores, but only five of the scores will count. Two of the scores are thrown out at random, then the highest and lowest
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
