17 Oct 2022

87

How Gymnastics Uses Physics to Perform Incredible Feats

Format: APA

Academic level: High School

Paper type: Research Paper

Words: 1375

Pages: 5

Downloads: 0

Physical exercise if fun and sometimes people fail to understand the concept that enables one to exercise. Some exercises seem obvious and require no explanation as to how they occur but is important to indicate the role of physics in physical exercise. The slightest movement of the body can be explained by the coordination of the mind and muscles which allow movement to occur. In the day to day activities, the athletics spend quality time soaring in the air, but before flying in the air, they have to take off from the ground. The manner in which the athletes take off from the ground is primarily dependent on physics and principles of science that explain force and motion ( Kessler, 2008) . While physics seems not to have a significant role in gymnastics it is important to note that it is widely applicable in many exercises such as tumbling which involve back tuck and a back layout exercises and applies the principles of the center of gravity and rotational inertia to perform the exercise effectively. Below is a discussion on how physics applies in gymnastics and especially in tumbling exercise. 

Firstly, tumbling refers to a sporting activity that combines artistic gymnastics which are usually carried out on the floor and the trampolining exercises. Tumbling can be understood best when it is broken down into steps. Importantly, the exercise seems to oppose the physics laws as well as the law of gravity, but it is one of the best exercises to explain some laws such as Newton's law of motion, conservation of momentum, conservation of energy, Torque, Moment of Inertia, and Inertia ( Contakos et al. 2009) . In this discussion tumbling exercise will be broken down from simple movement to complex and how physics apply gradually in the exercises from simple to complex. 

It’s time to jumpstart your paper!

Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.

Get custom essay

At first, before the tumbler engages in any activity, he is at rest, which applies the firs law of Newton which states that an object is in a state of uniformity unless an external force is applied to it. When the tumbler starts exercising, he is in motion which can only be stopped by an external force. The first exercise to discuss is the cartwheels round which involves the tumbler leaning in the forward direction and the hands held upwards, the tumbler falls forwards until the hands touch the ground. In this case, the Inertia which refers to resistant to change of a physical object when in motion, is responsible for carrying the tumbler forward to the point where the hands and the ground are in direct contact ( Contakos et al. 2009) . From this point, the rotating inertia which is a rotation that primarily relies on mass distribution enables the tumbler to lift his feet up over his head until the feet lands on the ground. It is important to note that the tumbler must use a lot of force to go against the law of gravity which pulls objects towards the ground. Additionally, Newton's second law explains why the tumbler can move about his, mass, speed, and force and the third law in Newton's laws explain why the tumbler was able to go against the force of gravity ( Kessler, 2008) . Newton's second law state that force and acceleration are vectors and the direction of either the force or acceleration vector is equal to the other. The law explains why the tumbler was able to move the feet, on the other hand, Newton's third law explains why the tumble was able to move up and back to the ground. While performing the cartwheel exercise, the center of gravity changes and moves towards the floor while at the handstand stage of the exercise. 

The second and a little complex tumbling exercise when compared to the first step to discuss is the back handspring. With this exercise, the tumble stands upright with the hands held upright while standing at this position the potential energy functional. While still standing straight up, the tumbler quotes and swings the hands as he makes a turn. Kinetic and Newton's second and third laws which revolve around gravitational and angular momentum are responsible for the movement ( Kessler, 2008) . Importantly the second law according to Newton state that the force of a body is equivalent to its mass when multiplied by acceleration, this implies that a tumbler has to use a lot of force so as to jump off the ground. As the tumbler pushes himself upwards, a force pushes him backward while the force of gravity pulls his back towards the ground. At this point, the tumbler is upside down, and he uses the rotating inertia to push his hands up while the torque force which is responsible for the rotation of an object in an axis enable the tumble to continuously spine his body. The torque force enables the tumbler to keep spinning until the force of gravity act on his feet to allow him to touch the ground, and at this point, he would have completed the back handspring. It is important to note that when spinning, the angular momentum force is changed to the torque which allows the tumbler to rotate in an axis movement until he reaches the ground ( Contakos et al. 2009) . Torque together with the momentum and the angle of the knee, arms and hips are responsible for enabling the tumbler to twist his body. 

While a tumbler is practicing a sequence of tumbling, it is important to use a lot of force and power to enable the tumbler to go through the subsequent moves after taking off from the ground. Firstly, the tumbler has to have a running start which will help build on the momentum which will be utilized during the sequence exercise ( Contakos et al. 2009) . Equally, Newton's second law applies in sequence tumbling which involves equal but opposite forces which enable the tumbler to move forward. The opposite but equal forces on the ground push the tumbler forward enabling him to be in a continuous sequence of exercise. In sequence tumbling, a full is achieve when the tumbler spin in the air, the tumbler spinning is primarily reinforced by torque force. Finally, the angular momentum is converted to the torque which enables the tumble to spin slowly into the ground and land with his feet. 

It is also important to mention the role of angular momentum which involves the increment or reduction of the angular speed of the distance between the mass and its original point. The angular momentum enables the tumbler to increase speed after leaving the ground and reduces it proportionally as with tumbler land on the ground with the feet ( Skuban et al, 2010) . For example while performing a simple standing stuck, the tumbler first jump while rotating his hips over his head, once he jumps and the feet are off the ground, the tumble starts losing his momentum. After removing the cheerleading, the tumbler increases speed which increases until the feet lands on the ground. 

Importantly physics helps in explain the difference between back loyalty and buck truck of which, back loyalty is more complicated and slow when compared with back tuck. The difference is brought about by the conservation of momentum principle whereby the momentum of a close object is constant, and this implies that the center of mass of an object is similar to the speed unless an external force impacted on the object ( Skuban et al, 2010) . In this case, the center of mass which is usually the point of rotation in a body is around the tumbler's waits. When a tumbler is exercising the back stuck when he jumps from the ground, the angular momentum is constant. Additionally, when he brings the legs close to the waist which is the center of mass he reduces the radius covered when making a rotation, this, in turn, increases the speed of the rotation ( Kessler, 2008) . On the other hand, when doing a back loyalty, the legs remain straight which in which in turn forces the body to cover the full radius as since the angular momentum is constant, the exercise becomes slow when compared with back stuck whose radius is reduced by pulling the legs towards the center of mass. Conservation of energy explains why back loyalty is complicated than back stuck and also why it is relatively slow. 

Conclusively, it is evidence that physics play a significant role people's daily life and importantly in gymnastics. Tumbling exercise is best to describe using physic principles such as the law of gravity, Newton's laws, and torque and conservation momentum principle. The first law of Newton describe the simplest move of being at rest before an exercise and the last move in tumbling which involves the feet landing on the ground is described by forces such as torque and force of gravity. Therefore, from the above discussion, it is evidence that physics is an important body that explains the events and objects to include physical exercise. 

References 

Contakos, J., Carlton, L. G., Thompson, B., & Suddaby, R. (2009). The physics of a gymnastics flight element.    The Physics Teacher ,    47 (6), 355-361. 

Kessler, Laura. (2008)."Physics of Tumbling."  Physics of Tumbling . University of North Carolina, 

Skuban, S., & Ranisavljević, M. Fizika u sportu . (2010)."Gymnastics."  Math2033 . University of Arkansas,

Illustration
Cite this page

Select style:

Reference

StudyBounty. (2023, September 14). How Gymnastics Uses Physics to Perform Incredible Feats.
https://studybounty.com/how-gymnastics-uses-physics-to-perform-incredible-feats-research-paper

illustration

Related essays

We post free essay examples for college on a regular basis. Stay in the know!

17 Sep 2023
Physics

Human Populations and the Environment

Demographic transition models are characterized by regions and countries registering lower mortality as well as lower birthrates as they develop into better economies due to factors such as industrialization....

Words: 849

Pages: 2

Views: 56

17 Sep 2023
Physics

Water Quality and Contamination: Lab Report

Abstract _ The following experiment utilizes bottled water to find out the differences in chemical composition between tap water and bottled water. In essence, the experiment was to find out how much more mineral...

Words: 1039

Pages: 5

Views: 84

17 Sep 2023
Physics

Climate Change and Global Warming

Is Earth Warming? Climate Change, Lines of Evidence is a short video produced by the National Academy of Sciences to help summarize what is known about climate change. Climate is measured by statistics such as the...

Words: 1213

Pages: 4

Views: 81

17 Sep 2023
Physics

Nobel Prize Winners: A List of Nobel Laureates

Summary of Nobel Prize Alfred Nobel discovered the Nobel Prize. Upon his death, it was realized that, he had come up with five annual rewards in peace, medicine, literature, physics and chemistry. In his will,...

Words: 256

Pages: 1

Views: 75

17 Sep 2023
Physics

Environmental Disaster of the Aral Sea

Introduction The Aral Sea is a famous natural feature in the whole world. It was among the largest land-locked natural waters in the world. This particular sea has of later been in the news for quite negative...

Words: 929

Pages: 3

Views: 88

17 Sep 2023
Physics

The Atmosphere of Earth: A layer of gases surrounding the planet

An atmosphere is capable of generating certain colorful formations when subjected to different light conditions. Some of these burst of color includes; sundogs, pillars, moon dogs and parhelic circles. It is...

Words: 1435

Pages: 4

Views: 91

illustration

Running out of time?

Entrust your assignment to proficient writers and receive TOP-quality paper before the deadline is over.

Illustration