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Physics in the field of sports
Physics in the field of sports
Physics in the field of sports
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Physics Of Bowling
The one thing that interests me is bowling. I have been playing all my life and after a whole semester and a half of being in Mr. Fetter’s class, I realized that everything has physics in it. One night after going bowling with my girlfriend(s) I wondered why when I hit the first pin, only seven went down and thus I lost the game. So, I got on the Internet and found a lot of articles and web sites talking about the physics of bowling. A lot of the web sites were brief descriptions. A guy named Paul Durbin wrote many articles on physics. One of his articles he discussed was about bowling. He mentioned one thing we already went over this semester in physics class. But it seems to me that he neglected to mention other forces the play a big role in bowling and the physics behind it.
Durbin said “In order to accelerate, you need a net force. As soon as I let go of the bowling ball, it’s accelerating. As soon as your fingers are out of the holes, the ball is at its highest point of acceleration (p.2).” According to the author, gravity is the net force acting upon an object, which means it is accelerating. The swinging of my arm (back the forward) being the net force. When my fingers leave the hole, it’s accelerating. Now, how fast it goes is determined on how fast you swing your arm and let go. Now that’s all Durbin basically said on bowling. But I realized that Newton’s Laws, momentum, kinetic and potential energy all have their role in bowling too.
Durbin was correct when he explained acceleration. Let me tell you a little something on acceleration. Acceleration is the rate at which the velocity is changing. Because acceleration is a rate, it is measured of how fast the velocity is changing with respect to time of course. The key idea that defines acceleration is change. Whenever we change our state of motion, we are accelerating. A bowling ball that can accelerate fast has the ability to change its velocity pretty fast. A bowling ball that can go from zero to 5 mph in .5 seconds has a greater acceleration than another ball let go by another player that can go from zero to 7 mph in 1 second. (We learned about this in class). So having a high acceleration is being quick to change and not always fast. Acceleration applies to changes in direction as well as changes in speed. When you let go of the bowling ball at a constant speed o...
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...t the total amount of energy never changes. Let’s assume that the cue ball has 10J of PE. As it’s hit, PE is at its highest (10J). When the ball is going down the alley, the sum of the ball’s PE and KE remains constant at successive positions ¼, ½, ¾, and all the way down. (This I also read ahead and found in the book). As soon as the ball has reached its highest point, PE and KE are equal (5J), and on the way down KE increases as PE decreases. When the ball lands, KE is 10J and PE is 0.
Law of Conservation of Momentum:
In the absence of an external force, the momentum of a system remains unchanged.
When you hit the cue ball, you have a natural follow through. When you apply that torque (extending the elbow), your momentum changes. You can see that if no net force or impulse acts on a system, then the momentum of that system cannot change.
Some of things mentioned, are things we know that happen, but we don't know why, and usually never wonder why, but for all things, there are explanations, which some of the secrets of mother nature were revealed here. Just remember that there are physics behind whatever you do or see including bowling with your girlfriend(s).
Many people might think that swinging the bat straight through the ball would be enough to hit the ball a decent distance off the bat. There's many more mechanics involved in the swinging process. Muscle has only a small part to play in the swinging a bat for power. There are two types of mechanics involved while swinging a bat, Linear and Rotational. Rotational mechanics are the dominant source of power in the swing. Out of the rotational mechanics come the two forces that help generate the speed and power of the swing, torque and the other comes from the energy of rotation. Speed from the energy of rotation comes from the path that your hands follow as you swing the bat. The speed generated by the circular rotation from your hands is like a ball at the end of a string, as long as your hands are moving in a circle then the ball continues to accelerate in a circle. So the bat will also move in at an increasing speed as long as your hands are following a circular path as you swing. Any foward movement of the hands or body in a straight line won't add to the overall bat speed.
Wikipedia gives us following definition of a bowling ball: “A bowling ball is a piece of sporting equipment used to hit bowling pins in the sport of bowling. Ten-pin bowling balls are typically hard spheres with three holes drilled in them, one each for the ring and middle fingers, and one for the thumb.”
Once the ball has cleared the barrel there is a significant change in the forces that are acting on the paintball. The imbalance of the pressure behind the ball is gone. So that there is no longer any force pushing the ball in the direction that the muzzle is pointing in.
The purpose of this paper is to describe the softball swing anatomically, mechanically, and analytically. By analyzing each move one makes when...
When a person swings a bat, their arms propel the bat to a high velocity which is needed to transfer momentum to the ball and send it sailing. Also, there is a transfer of energy starting with the batter then moving from the batter's arms to the bat and then when contact is being made with the ball the energy in the bat is transferred to the ball which propels the ball forward (hopefully:)) The force that acts on the ball, as contact is being made (contact is about 1/1000sec.
Baseball is a fascinating sport that is exceptionally fun to play. This assignment is all about understanding the physics of a few key aspects of this sport. One might ask what physics could have to do with baseball? Like most sports baseball involves physical motion. Baseball encompasses all three planes of motion through throwing, hitting, and fielding. All of the classical laws of mechanics can be applied to understand the physics of this game.
The spin on a baseball is defined as a vector that points on the axis’s rotation. And the magnitude of this spin vector is the number of revolutions per/sec, this is known as an angular velocity vector (Horney, A., Lowry, T., Schwenker, E., & wray, E. (2008). A New spin on baseball. Electronic Proceedings of Undergraduate Mathematics, 3(4)). All baseballs are affected by this spin and the spin is what causes the change in direction. When fastballs are thrown the spin of the ball affects the ball and makes it travel through the air at a higher velocity. It also makes the air mass beneath the ball greater and makes the air above the ball thinner. That creates lift and is what makes the ball faster and causes more speed.
Hitting a baseball is a task that is learned through trial and error, which makes changing a batter’s swing extremely difficult. Once that batter finds their comfort zone and makes contact they will do the same thing until it fails them once again. Perfecting the mechanics of that swing won’t create an exceptional hitter, but it will create a swing that consistently incr...
type of energy is lost or gained, and whether or not a factor that is
The game of baseball has several elements of motion to it – throwing, catching, hitting, running – but I’ve chosen to focus on the physics involved in hitting a baseball. To a spectator, the exchange is simple: the pitcher throws the baseball, an opposing batter tries to hit the ball. Even to an athlete, the process is not one of thought, but of instinct and action. However, in actuality, the laws of physics dictate everything that will occur from the moment the baseball leaves the pitcher’s hand. Even the very familiar equipment o...
When you throw a football across the yard to your friend, you are using physics. You make adjustments for all the factors, such as distance, wind and the weight of the ball. The farther away your friend is, the harder you have to throw the ball, or the steeper the angle of your throw. This adjustment is done in your head, and it's physics. Physics is the branch of science that deals with the physical world. The area of physics that is most relevant to football is mechanics, the study of motion and its causes. The three main categories of motion that apply to the game are:
"Understanding the Mechanics of Throwing a Baseball May Help Protect the Shoulder and Elbow ." Baseball Pitching. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. .
“There's kind of a Zen aspect to bowling. The pins are either staying up or down before you even throw your arm back. It's kind of a mind-set. You want to be in this perfect mind-set before you released the ball.” Jeff Bridges describes bowling to be black or white; one pin can not both be up and down. However, the character whom Jeff Bridges portrays in the classic bowling noir film The Big Lebowski, the Dude, is far from black and white. Once he was an ex-social justice warrior protesting the Vietnam war, now he is hanging out with a disgruntled Vietnam vet. With a joint in his mouth and a White Russian in his hand, the Dude goes through life without a care, only waiting for his turn to bowl. Throughout the movie, the Dude is dragged into a series of unfortunate events, none of which are his idea. What originally started off with nothing more than a piss-stained carpet spawned into a faux kidnapping and the death of the Dude’s beloved friend, Donny. The plot,
We ran into Newtons First Law, which claims that an object resists change in motion, as the marble rolled down the floor it didn’t stop until it was acted against by friction. As we moved on, Newtons Second Law came into play when we were creating our lever as we need a ball that would roll down with enough acceleration that it could knock down the objects. Newton’s second law claims, that F=MA. So, we choose a golf ball since it would have more mass than a rubber ball, but it would have less acceleration when the lever was started. This way, it would knock the upcoming objects. Newtons Third Law claims that every action yields an equal and opposite reaction. This is proven in our Rube Goldberg Machine when the small car was rolling down the tracks as the wheels pushes against the track making the track move backwards. The track provides an equal and opposite direction by pushing the wheels forward.
The speed is a very important part of physics and plays a vital role in boxing. Have you ever thought that the boxers try and increase their speed a lot? The faster the boxers punch the harder it gets for the opponent to react. The boxers also increase their speed so that their reflexes improve and they can save themselves from fast punches coming. The