Tricia+McGill

The Physics of Flipping

Description: Gymnastics involves a lot of physics, for example doing a back handspring on the balance beam. Balance and momentum are used when doing practically anything on the balance beam. The gymnasts needs to balance her body to stay in the middle of the beam and especially when flipping. She uses momentum to push off of the beam and flip properly along with gravity which forces her feet back down to the beam. Circular motion is present while the gymnastics is arched over flipping above the beam. Another important part of physics related to gymnastics is Newton's second law, which states that the acceleration of an object depends on the net force and the mass. It states that when the force on the object increases, the acceleration increases as well, and that when the mass increases the acceleration decreases.

Categories: __ - Balance: __ Balance obviously plays a big roll in gymnastics, if the gymnasts does not balance her body and land with her hands and feet properly balanced on the beam she will wobble and most likely fall off of the beam. the center of mass is also every important with the balance of gymnastics. When a a gymnast is flipping it will be easier and faster if the center of gravity is lower. When the center of gravity is lower it helps the gymnast stay balanced.

__ - Energy : __ When a gymnast is tumbling she begins standing straight up not moving, there she has all potential energy, then she bends her legs and swings her hands to flip. She is now using kinetic energy and uses momentum to push herself over and land on her feet. This energy is what allows the gymnasts to finish the movement and land on the ground, hopefully on her feet. During a back handspring the potential energy the gymnastic begins with turns into kinetic when she begins to push off the ground and use her energy and force to push off and get her body to bend and flip all the way until she lands. Her energy is then transformed back into potential energy know that she is not moving.

Newton's second law : This law relates to gymnastics because when the gymnasts is doing her back handspring the amount of force she has flipping over is equal to her mass times her acceleration as she flips. Her mass will obviously stay the same but the acceleration and force can change depending on the way she flips. For example when a gymnasts is doing a back handspring if she uses more force out of her legs her acceleration will be greater. The same is with other aspects of tumbling like in a roundoff back handspring if the gymnasts runs faster and pushes more out of her legs as she is flipping the equation below will have a greater outcome. The more force exerted the faster the gymnast will flip. ( Force = Mass * Acceleration)

References - https://dlechtma.expressions.syr.edu/?p=68 - http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/08/02/sports/olympics/women-individual-gymnastics.html?_r=0 - http://www.topendsports.com/sport/gymnastics/physics.htm - http://www.unc.edu/~lkessler/ - http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/newtlaws/u2l3a.cfm - http://www.civiced-ri.org/physite/gymaly/Newton's%203%20laws.htm - http://www.livestrong.com/article/546292-what-is-the-advantage-of-a-gymnast-being-short-in-stature/