The History and Physics of Sports

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The History and Physics of Sports

• By Stephanie McElheny, Alexander Cantor, Joe
  Blazeck, Amanda Heuser, and Allen Gonczol

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Greek Olympic Games

• Earlier in the year, we learned about the Greeks
  and their discoveries in the astronomical field.
  These discoveries later provided the basis for
  much of the physics we know today. However,
  physics was not just present in the skies during
  Ancient times, but also in the Greeks famed
  Olympic Games.
• The Ancient Olympic Games were an athletic and
  religious celebration held in the Greek town of
  Olympia as early as 776 BC. The Olympic Games
  where held every four years to honor the gods.
  There are two conflicting myths that tell of the
  start of the Olympic Games one of these tells
  of the hero Heracles, who won a race at Olympia
  and proclaimed that the race should be re-enacted
  every four years, while another claims that Zeus
  had begun the festival after his defeat of the
  Titan Cronus.
• The Greek Olympic Games continued until AD 349
  when the Greek Empire fell to the Christian
  Romans. They were discontinued until the were
  revived in the late 19th Century.

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Greek Olympic GamesAthletes and Events

• Unlike the Modern Olympic Games, only men who
  spoke Greek were allowed to participate in the
  Ancient Games. They included athletes from the
  various Greek city-states, and eventually
  participants came from Greek colonies as well,
  extending the range of the games to far shores of
  the Mediterranean and of the Black Sea.
• In order to be in the games one had to qualify
  and one's name written down on a list of
  athletes. Only young men were allowed to
  participate, and some were turned away for being
  too mature. Before being able to participate,
  the athletes had to take an oath in front of the
  statue of Zeus saying that they had been in
  training for 10 months.
• Thought the first Olympic Games consisted of only
  one event, as the Games progressed other events
  were added. The main Olympic Games consisted of
  five main events. They were
• Boxing
• Wrestling
• Pankration (regulated full contact fighting,
  much like today mixed martial arts.)
• Chariot Racing
• The Pentathlon- consisted of wrestling, stadion
  (180m foot race), long jump, javelin throw and
  discus throw.

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Greek Olympic Games5-day-span Schedule

• The Greek Olympic Games began as one day, but as
  more events were added, the time period was
  expanded. The schedule of the games consisted of
  three days of competition and two of religious
  celebration.

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Greek Olympic Games5-day-span Schedule (cont.)

• First Day
• Oath to Zeus Horkios (Zeus of the Oaths)
• Heats and Matchups Determined
• Sacrifices to Pelops
• Second Day
• Procession of Equestrian Event Participants
• Chariot Races
• Horse Races
• Pentathlon
• Stadion Race
• Javelin Throw
• Jump
• Discus Throw
• Wrestling
• Third Day (Day of the Full Moon)
• Procession of All Participants
• Sacrifices to Zeus

• Fourth Day
• Running Events
• Stadion Race
• Double-Stadion Race
• Long-Distance Race
• Race in Armor
• Wrestling
• Boxing
• Pankration
• Fifth Day
• Awarding of Prizes
• Banquet for Victors

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BasketballHistory

• A game that started with 18 men in a YMCA
  gymnasium in Springfield, Mass., has grown into a
  game that more than 300 million people play
  worldwide. The man who created this instantly
  successful sport was Dr. James Naismith.
• Under instructions from the head of Physical
  Education at the School for Christian Workers,
  Naismith was given 2 weeks to invent an indoor
  game that would provide an "athletic distraction"
  for a rowdy class through the brutal New England
  winter. His creation didn't come easily. His
  first intention was to bring outdoor games
  indoors such as soccer and lacrosse. These games
  proved to be  too physical and cumbersome.
• After brainstorming some new ideas, Naismith
  developed basketball's original 13 rules and
  consequently, the game of basketball. The new
  indoor game was played with a soccer ball, peach
  baskets and nine to a side. This first contest is
  believed to have been played Dec. 21, 1891

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Basketball

• Potential Energy (PE mgh)
• When a person bounces a basketball, at its
  maximum height, it has potential (or stored)
  energy. It has a mass, its being affected by
  gravity, and it has a height.
• Theres also potential energy involved when a
  person prepares for a to shoot, dunk, rebound, or
  block a shot. They bend their knees to create
  energy for their jump.
• Kinetic Energy (KE ½ mv2)
• When the basketball hits the ground, it loses
  some energy in the process. At its lowest point,
  it has kinetic energy. It has its mass, and its
  velocity from falling to the ground.
• Projectile Motion (x vot ½at2)
• and (y vot ½gt2)
• Shooting a basketball and passing a basketball
  both involve projectile motion. There is movement
  in the x and y position. When a person shoots the
  ball, they have to estimate where the ball will
  start its downward arc so that it will go
  through the hoop. When a person is receiving a
  pass, they have to set up at the right spot so
  that they catch the ball in the right position.

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FootballHistory

• Walter Camp, the Athletic Director at Yale
  University from 1888-1914 used several different
  rules from Rugby and Soccer to derive a new game
  called football. The original basic rules are as
  follows

1.) side retained undisputed possession of the
ball, until that side gives up the ball as a
result of its own violations 2.) the line of
scrimmage 3.) 11 on a team instead of 15 4.)
created the quarter-back and center positions
5.) forward pass 6.) standardized the scoring
system, numerical scoring 7.) created the safety,
interference, penalties, and the neutral zone
8.) tackling as low as the knee was permitted
1888 9.) a touchdown increased in value to six
points and field goals went down to three points
1912
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Physics of Football

• The path of a football can be looked at using
  these 2 equations
• y Vyt - 0.5gt2
• x Vxt
• y is the height at any time (t)
• Vy is the vertical component of the football's
  initial velocity
• g is acceleration due to Earth's gravity, 9.8
  m/s2
• x is the horizontal distance of the ball at any
  time (t)
• Vx is the horizontal component of the football's
  initial velocity

• Hang Time
• ttotal (2Vy / g)
• Maximum Range
• Xmax Vx ttotal
• Time Ball Reaches Maximum Height
• t1/2 0.5 ttotal
• Maximum Height
• ymax vy(t1/2) - ½g(t1/2)2

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Physics of Football

• American football is a competitive team sport.
  The object of the game is to score points by
  advancing the football into the opposing team's
  end zone. The ball can be advanced by carrying
  the ball, or by throwing or handing it from one
  teammate to the other. Points can be scored in a
  variety of ways, including carrying the ball over
  the goal line, throwing the ball to another
  player past the goal line or kicking it through
  the goal posts on the opposing side. The winner
  is the team with the most points when the time
  expires and the last play ends.

• Velocity and Angle
• Ball moves in two directions horizontally and
  vertically
• The angle of the thrown or kick affects how much
  velocity is in each direction.
• If the angle is steep, there will be more
  velocity in the vertical direction causing the
  ball to go higher, but will travel a shorter
  distance.
• If the angle is shallow, there will be more
  velocity in the horizontal direction causing the
  ball to travel a farther distance, but not go as
  high.

• Throwing or Kicking a Football
• When a football is thrown through to air it moves
  in a curved path and is affected by gravity.
• Gravity slows the ball down until it reaches its
  maximum height where it stops briefly, then
  gravity causes it to accelerate back down to the
  ground.
• This movement is known as projectile motion.
  Three factors play a part in projectile motion
• Velocity
• Angle
• Rotation

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Physics of Football

• Elastic Collision
• Players do not stay in contact after they
  collide.
• Inelastic Collision
• One player grabs on to another and they move
  together.
• If the both players have the same momentum when
  they hit, they will stop moving at the time of
  collision.
• If one player has more momentum than the other,
  the player with less momentum will be knocked
  backwards.

• Running on the Field
• Players Momentum
• p mv
• Changing Direction and Acceleration on the Field
• a (vf - vo)/(tf - to)
• vf is final velocity
• vo is initial velocity
• tf is final time
• to is initial time

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Baseball/SoftballHistory

• Americans began playing baseball on informal
  teams, using local rules, in the early 1800s. By
  the 1860s, the sport, unrivaled in popularity,
  was being described as America's "national
  pastime."
• Alexander Joy Cartwright (1820-1892) of New York
  invented the modern baseball field in 1845.
  Alexander Cartwright and the members of his New
  York Knickerbocker Base Ball Club, devised the
  first rules and regulations for the modern game
  of baseball.

• Softball is a variant of baseball and a popular
  participant sport, particularly in the United
  States.
• In 1887, George Hancock, a reporter for Chicago
  Board of Trade, invented softball. He invented
  the game as a form of indoor baseball on a cold
  winter day inside the warm Farragut Boat Club.

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Baseball/Softball

• Velocity (m/s)
• At the most basic, a ball has velocity when its
  thrown. It travels a certain distance per second.
  A pitcher wants to have the highest velocity
  possible when they throw the ball, because its
  harder for the batter to connect.
• Projectile Motion (x vot ½at2)
• and (y vot ½gt2)
• When a person hits a fly ball, the outfielders
  have to judge where to position themselves so
  that they can catch it. Sometimes its a higher
  arc, while other times its more streamlined.
  They have to take the correct angle on the ball,
  and make sure that theyre under it when it
  starts its downward arc.
• Impulse (F ?t m ?v)
• With impulse, you can determine the change in
  speed of the ball. The impulse is different for a
  check swing than for a full swing. The full swing
  obviously has a much higher change in velocity
  then a check swing, because the bat isnt moving
  with the latter.

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HockeyHistory

• Historical records show that a crude form of
  hockey was played in Egypt 4,000 years ago, and
  in Ethiopia around 1,000 BC. Various museums
  offer evidence that a form of the game was played
  by Romans and Greeks, and by the Aztec Indians of
  South America several centuries before Columbus
  landed in the New World.
• Hockey in England in the 17th and 18th century
  consisted of whole villages playing the game with
  the objective of hitting the ball into the
  opposing villages' common ground. Teams often
  consisted of 60 to 100 players and games
  occasionally lasted several days or so with
  injuries such as broken arms and legs not
  uncommon. Umpires could only arbitrate a decision
  if called upon to do so by a player from one of
  the teams.
• The game that we know today emerged at Eton
  College in England in the 1860s when the first
  rules were written down. Further rules were
  written in 1875 when the first Hockey Association
  was formed. The game was played on a field nearly
  200 meters in length and all players chased the
  ball for the whole of the game. In 1886 the
  Teddington Cricket Club effectively lead a
  movement which resulted in the British Hockey
  Association being formed which included amongst
  its rules a striking circle for hitting goals.
• Changes in rules and play quickly developed from
  this beginning and by 1889 the pyramid system -
  five forwards, three halves, two backs and a
  goalkeeper - became the accepted method of
  playing hockey.

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Hockey

• Physics takes advantage of a number of physical
  properties. For instance, the ice and skate
  reduce friction. The sticks impose a force on
  the puck. When two players collide, inertia
  decides the winner.

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TennisHistory

• It was in France that the game as we know it
  today really came into being. During the 16th,
  17th and 18th centuries it became the highly
  fashionable sport of kings and noblemen and was
  called ' Jeu de paumme' - the game of the palm.
• The term Lawn Tennis was coined by Arthur
  Balfour, a British Statesman and it didn't take
  long before lawn surfaces were replaced with
  various turf derivatives and eventually clay and
  concrete. Within a very short time Lawn Tennis
  began to replace croquet as the summer sport. The
  biggest boost for tennis however came in 1875.
  The All England Croquet Club, formed in 1869 had
  failed to attract enough visitors and in 1875
  they decided to offer Lawn Tennis as an added
  attraction. The new game was an instant success,
  so much so that in 1877 the name of the club was
  changed to the All England Croquet and Lawn
  Tennis Club. Rising rents at their four-acre site
  in the London suburb of Wimbledon however, meant
  that the club had to raise additional funds.
  Later that year the first ever Lawn Tennis
  tournament was organised. A committee was
  established to draw up a set of rules the first
  tournament went ahead with 22 players, watched by
  some 200 spectators. The Wimbledon Championship
  was born.

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Tennis

• In tennis, players have to take in a lot of
  physical information. They have to be able to
  visually calculate the balls trajectory. They
  also take into account air friction and the
  effect of spins on the ball.

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GolfHistory

• Golf as we know it today originated from a game
  played on the eastern coast of Scotland in the
  Kingdom of Fife during the 15th century. Players
  would hit a pebble around a natural course of
  sand dunes, rabbit runs and tracks using a stick
  or primitive club. Though there were other
  stick-and-ball games at the time, only Golf had
  an addition aspect the hole.
• From Scotland, golf spread quickly into England
  and then throughout the world.

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Physics of Golf
Golf is a sport in which individual players or
teams hit a ball into a hole using various clubs,
and also is one of the few ball games that does
not use a fixed standard playing area.

• There are many different types of golf clubs, and
  each creates a different angle when hitting the
  ball.
• The higher the number is on the club, the
  higher that ball will go when hit.
• Range of the ball can be determined using

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Conclusion

• It is overly evident that physics plays an
  important role in sports.  In fact those who can
  use physics in there play typically have an
  advantage over others.With the use of physics
  you can design practice programs that are more
  effective in targeting certain groups of
  muscles.All of these factors provide for a
  significant reason to study physics.