Project Description:
Our physics of sports project began when the STEM class received a letter from Mr. Pitti, San Marin High School's athletic director, asking us to make videos on how to improve in various different sports. For our Physics of Sports project, we had to choose a sport to research, and make a video explaining how to improve your ability to play that sport. As a group we decided to study the physics of mountain biking, after considering many other sports such as soccer, basketball, and volleyball. We started our research off by watching some videos of professional mountain bikers. Then we began to gather some basic information on how to improve your mountain biking skills. The main things we found that improve your mountain biking skills were wearing bike gloves, having the ideal head/body angle, and having tires with good grips, which creates friction.
Our physics of sports project began when the STEM class received a letter from Mr. Pitti, San Marin High School's athletic director, asking us to make videos on how to improve in various different sports. For our Physics of Sports project, we had to choose a sport to research, and make a video explaining how to improve your ability to play that sport. As a group we decided to study the physics of mountain biking, after considering many other sports such as soccer, basketball, and volleyball. We started our research off by watching some videos of professional mountain bikers. Then we began to gather some basic information on how to improve your mountain biking skills. The main things we found that improve your mountain biking skills were wearing bike gloves, having the ideal head/body angle, and having tires with good grips, which creates friction.
Evidence of work:
Concepts:
During this project we learned about many important concepts. The concepts that we expanded on/learned about included acceleration, velocity, force, momentum, impulse, air resistance and elasticity.
Force of impact: You would normally calculate the force of impact by making momentum equal to impulse. (mass x time = force x time). In our project we calculated the force applied to the bike pedal by putting a scale between the bike pedal and the biker's foot. We then were able to read the amount of force exerted on the scale (which was 160lbs). Even though 160lbs was a force already, we converted 160lbs into newtons which is a more scientific term. We multiplied 160 by 4.45, (the amount of newtons in a pound), to get 712 newtons.
Velocity Vectors:
Velocity is the rate of change of the position of an object. You calculate velocity by dividing the change in distance by the change in time. Once you have your vertical velocity, you can find the horizontal velocity or the distance traveled, by using the pythagorean theorem, which is a^2+b^2=c^2.
Force: a force can described as a push or a pull. You multiply an object's mass by its acceleration to find its force. Forces are measured in units called forces.
Actual Mechanical Advantage: is the mechanical advantage that includes that is taking place in the "real" world. Distance divided by height gives you the mechanical advantage of a simple machine. We calculated the actual Mechanical Advantage of a bike crank. We found out that one pedal rotation in gear one is equivalent to 3/4 of a bike tire rotation. We also found out that one pedal rotation in gear 22 is equivalent to 3 1/3 of a bike tire rotation.
Ideal Mechanical Advantage: is the mechanical advantage in a perfect situation. Ideal Mechanical Advantage does not take friction or air resistance into consideration. You calculate the ideal mechanical advantage of an object by dividing the input distance by the output distance.
Potential energy: is determined by the position of the object
Kinetic energy: is determined by the motion of the object. If an object is falling it has kinetic energy.
Speed: is the rate at which something moves. You calculate speed by dividing the distance traveled by the time of travel.
Acceleration: the increase in the rate or speed. You can calculate the acceleration of an object by dividing its velocity by the change in time.
During this project we learned about many important concepts. The concepts that we expanded on/learned about included acceleration, velocity, force, momentum, impulse, air resistance and elasticity.
Force of impact: You would normally calculate the force of impact by making momentum equal to impulse. (mass x time = force x time). In our project we calculated the force applied to the bike pedal by putting a scale between the bike pedal and the biker's foot. We then were able to read the amount of force exerted on the scale (which was 160lbs). Even though 160lbs was a force already, we converted 160lbs into newtons which is a more scientific term. We multiplied 160 by 4.45, (the amount of newtons in a pound), to get 712 newtons.
Velocity Vectors:
Velocity is the rate of change of the position of an object. You calculate velocity by dividing the change in distance by the change in time. Once you have your vertical velocity, you can find the horizontal velocity or the distance traveled, by using the pythagorean theorem, which is a^2+b^2=c^2.
Force: a force can described as a push or a pull. You multiply an object's mass by its acceleration to find its force. Forces are measured in units called forces.
Actual Mechanical Advantage: is the mechanical advantage that includes that is taking place in the "real" world. Distance divided by height gives you the mechanical advantage of a simple machine. We calculated the actual Mechanical Advantage of a bike crank. We found out that one pedal rotation in gear one is equivalent to 3/4 of a bike tire rotation. We also found out that one pedal rotation in gear 22 is equivalent to 3 1/3 of a bike tire rotation.
Ideal Mechanical Advantage: is the mechanical advantage in a perfect situation. Ideal Mechanical Advantage does not take friction or air resistance into consideration. You calculate the ideal mechanical advantage of an object by dividing the input distance by the output distance.
Potential energy: is determined by the position of the object
Kinetic energy: is determined by the motion of the object. If an object is falling it has kinetic energy.
Speed: is the rate at which something moves. You calculate speed by dividing the distance traveled by the time of travel.
Acceleration: the increase in the rate or speed. You can calculate the acceleration of an object by dividing its velocity by the change in time.
Reflection:
In this project it was much harder to make sure that every worked/contributed and equal amount of time and knowledge. Each person in my group took on a different role. One person was the biker, one person did the voice over, and I did the filming and editing. Then we all worked on the voice over script. I felt like it was much easier to manage time during this project. I loved filming and editing the film since those are some of my hobbies that I enjoy doing in my free time, so it was fun being able to work on it in class. Something else that I enjoyed doing was learning about all of the main elements of physics that take place during most sports, and then being able to incorporate that into our video. (It really brought the concepts that we learned in the classroom to life when we were able to see the concepts in our video.) Two things that my group had troubles with was making sure that everyone contributes the same amount of time/work, and deciding on a sport to study. At first we all had different ideas on which sports we wanted to do. The sports that we were considering included: soccer, basketball, volleyball, tae won do, and mountain biking. After a few days of debating, we eventually all agreed to do mountain biking. It also took a lot of effort to make sure that everyone contributes that same amount of information, and honestly I think that some people did more work than others, but we all contributed some time to get to the end product.
In this project it was much harder to make sure that every worked/contributed and equal amount of time and knowledge. Each person in my group took on a different role. One person was the biker, one person did the voice over, and I did the filming and editing. Then we all worked on the voice over script. I felt like it was much easier to manage time during this project. I loved filming and editing the film since those are some of my hobbies that I enjoy doing in my free time, so it was fun being able to work on it in class. Something else that I enjoyed doing was learning about all of the main elements of physics that take place during most sports, and then being able to incorporate that into our video. (It really brought the concepts that we learned in the classroom to life when we were able to see the concepts in our video.) Two things that my group had troubles with was making sure that everyone contributes the same amount of time/work, and deciding on a sport to study. At first we all had different ideas on which sports we wanted to do. The sports that we were considering included: soccer, basketball, volleyball, tae won do, and mountain biking. After a few days of debating, we eventually all agreed to do mountain biking. It also took a lot of effort to make sure that everyone contributes that same amount of information, and honestly I think that some people did more work than others, but we all contributed some time to get to the end product.