Mattharner

The Physics of Ultimate 

Unlike football, soccer, basketball, and virtually every other sport, Ultimate provides ample opportunities for amazing layout grabs. Because discs have circular lift, they can be thrown accurately with slower speeds, which allows the human body time to react to the path of the disc. The discs are designed with a curved top that allows air to easily flow over them. As the disc flies through the air, the top creates less drag than the bottom. This creates a low pressure pocket above it, causing the air under the disc to push it upwards. The same concept is what applies to aircraft wings.

The player uses his horizontal momentum to extend his body towards the disc. A layout requires enough speed to counteract the force of gravity which is acting on the player. The players mass times his speed is known as his momentum. The gravity acting on the player in the picture is pulling him towards the ground with an acceleration of 9.8 meters per second, which gives him a small window to grab the disc. For a player with a .5m vertical jump, they have only .63 seconds in the air. In a horizontal dive, the time is cut in half to 3.1 seconds. Because of this, timing and acceleration are vital.

The average athlete can sprint at 7 meters per second, so if a player jumps .5 meters high in a full sprint, he would cover 3.5 meters or 11 feet. Although an 11 foot jump is a little extreme, using the physics of momentum can help you calculate throws outside of the endzone where the player can use their forward momentum to catch the disc in the air, and land inside the endzone for a point.

Understanding the physics of ultimate can help advance gameplay and strategy in your next game.

Categories Lift, Momentum, Gravity

References: http://static.flickr.com/89/223730276_b6f99ea5d2_o.jpg http://media.thestate.com/smedia/2013/03/04/16/02/HxH4s.AuSt.91.jpeg

http://www.thestar.com http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/momentum/u4l1a.cfm http://www.physicsclassroom.com/