The Physics Of Gymnastics video

[Eric Heiden]

Here's a pretty well made video on "the physics of gymnastics" which is really just a bunch of cool clips of female gymnasts and people saying "they have to be really strong to do that stuff."

 

[Antonio Boyer]

nice video. wish it was longer and got more into it 

[Joshua Slocum]

The graphics were quite impressive - I wish I knew how those were made. But I agree that there was very little substantive content on the actual physics.

[Mike Steffens]

"The force of two or three football players". The force of what? Impact? She doesn't say. She's also sounds something between Australian and European, so those football players are likely what we would call "soccer players", the likes of which aren't terribly big by American standards. A 180-190 lb "football" player at 6 foot 1 is pretty good sized, but that pales in comparison to the 300 lb monsters we get on American football teams. 

 

Also, they don't do anything on male gymnastics for whatever reason. They even have a female PhD physics candidate do the explaining. I wonder how many football players of force a male gymnast could produce? 

[James Sagar]

I was unaware that "football players" was a unit of measurement.  I guess they don't cover that until the PhD level....

[Joshua Slocum]

My guess is that they meant the force experienced during landing is roughly equal to the weight of 2-3 football players. It's not really clear what this force is supposed to be though. Is it the maximum instantaneous force? The average force? 

[Larry Roseman]

Would have thought it would be more than a few players, but probably the mats absorb a substantial amount.

Also, not sure if the physicist it taking into account the angular acceleration component during somersaults and

twists that must be absorbed when coming to a stop. 

 

Males of course weighing more will generate greater forces of impact, all other things being equal.

[Joshua Naterman]

I don't think they calculated the impacts correctly, because here in the USA we actually have force plate data that is published in peer-reviewed journals.

 

Of course, if you're talking about a 100 lb girl vs a 330 lb football player, then 3 football players worth of force (assuming we're talkinga bout weight) is about right for a back handspring to backflip, but I thought that was the dumbest way to say 10x bodyweight I have ever heard... I mean, 3 football players doing what?!

[Jon Douglas]

Side note; If she's referring to Australian rules football, it's sort of halfway between rugby and soccer. There's definitely tackling, but not the slam impacts of rugby/US footy players. These guys are generally mid-6-feet in height and around 100 or so kg, runners rather than your huge tacklers.

[Sailor Venus]

Football players is a vague term. Could she be referring to wide receivers or offense linemen? Size/weight difference between the two are great.

 

Those gymnasts love those yurchenko's.