Links for 2011-08-02

  • The Virtuosi: Physics in Sports: The Fosbury Flop
    “Physics has greatly influenced the progress of most sports. There have been continual improvements in equipment for safety or performance as well as improvements in technique. I’d like to talk about some physics in sports over a series of posts. Here I’ll talk about a technique improvement in High Jumping, the Fosbury Flop.

    The Fosbury Flop came into the High Jumping scene in the 1968 Olympics, where Dick Fosbury used the technique to win the gold medal. The biggest difference between the Flop and previous methods is that the jumper goes over the bar upside down (facing the sky). This allows the jumper to bend their back so that their arms and legs drape below the bar”

  • World Record Blob Jump | Wired Science | Wired.com
    Perhaps it is time to revisit the blob jump. Why? Because the creators of this video essentially begged me to do in the way it was made.

    First, it is a cool video with a cool toy. Who doesn’t like to see people flailing and flying through the air?
    The video is perfect for video analysis. It has the camera far away, stationary, and perpendicular to the motion. It is also in HD. What more could I want?
    From a physics perspective, it is a fairly simple problem.
    Finally, the video creators listed some numbers for the height that I can check.
    Let the analysis begin.