Mathman and skating math

Mathman and skating math

Because of a response I made to elingrace in the "my prob. w/ SH and MK" thread, I started thinking about all the math in skating--revs/sec, angle of take-off, jump height, time in air...and on and on.

So, Mathman, do you ever study these things, or do you just like to watch and forget about all that stuff?

Re: Mathman and skating math

LOL....I can just imagine someone freeze framing a spiral or jump split and putting a protractor up to the TV.

Re: Mathman and skating math

LOL, that sounds like great fun, it's no longer a joyous experience but a geometry exam! You either like the way someone jumps or not, after you've watched skating for so many years you should be able to discern between textbook execution and flawed technique. I didn't even want to get into the whole jump thing, but oh my, does it really matter? Would these girls (Michelle and Sasha) really be at and near the top of their sport if they had some devestating technique flaw? No. They jump differently. They skate differently. I'm happy with variety and I'd rather not be digging for my calculator and protractor (LOL, Heyang!) during the warm-ups!

Re: Mathman and skating math

One of the reasons I don't post too often is because I am not an arm chair fan of the elite skaters. I do watch every amateur televised competition I have time for. My time is spent in, and driving to and from, rinks. I see elite skaters practicing @ the rink more often than I see them on tv.

My daughter is currently working on her triples, and I am very interested in the research people at USFSA have done on multi-rotatioal jumps.

In the Dec, 2001 through April, 2002 SKATING magazine, Deborah King, Sarah Smith, and Kathy Casey colaborated on a series of articles about triples and quads. A good bit of the research came from the computer program that is used in the "Chevy Stro-motion" clips (those clips are a mere fraction of what the program is capable of showing).

I think that some folks who are constantly bickering about who cheated what take-off and what landing should read the articles. They might be interested to know that, by analyzing five senior men from '99 US nats., they found that there was an average of 96 degrees (more than a quarter turn) of pre-rotation and and the landings were an average of 90 degrees short on landing. quoting from the article, "Even though this pre-rotation occurs, it is not generally taught in order to avoid flutzes (swithcing to the inside edge rather than the outside edge, making it a flip instead of a lutz). However it is useful to know." How's that for what I take to be the feeling on this board that far more women flutz than men?

My original question about the math (maybe physics is really more accurate?) was to Mathman. I didn't think that a casual fan of figure skating would sit in front of the tv with a protractor. But I did think that a fan whose proffession is mathematics might have an added interest in this aspect of the sport.

You might be surprised how many skaters and coaches can benefit from the 'math' of figure skating.

Spiral -- physics analysis

There is a thread on MKF, where people (including ApatchApatch from this board) had a detail analysis of the edge and spiral based on physics theory.

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>pub1.ezboard.com/fmichell...8823.topic[/quote]

Re: Spiral -- physics analysis

Nthuz, I have never really studied the geometry or physics of figure skating, although I think that it is interesting and I do like to read the articles that come out once in a while about it. Of course there was the time that I tried to measure which lady had the best split jump, but when Mrs. MM caught me holding a protractor up to the computer screen, measuring, um, leg angles, that was the end of that experiment.

Actually, I did think of a couple of projects that would be appropriate for, say, a master's thesis. So maybe the next time a students comes along seeking topic to study I will explore the idea further.

My problem is that I have never skated myself and I don't really know anything about skating technique (as is obvious from my posts :lol: ), so it would be a learning experience for me, too.

Mzheng, thanks for the link. That was an interesting and funny discussion. I think that DaveSato is just having fun yanking everybody's chain.

There seem to be a lot of engineers (speaking of David Sato) who like figure skating. I used an Internet search engine to search for "Michelle Kwan." This particular search engine had a feature that says, "People who searched for ______ also searched for _______." For "Michelle Kwan" the number one cognate was "Michele Kwan" (a misspelling), and the number two cognate was "Engineering Mathematics."

Mathman

Re: Spiral -- physics analysis

Mathman,

DaveSato is really good at irritating people over there. That's why I love his posts. Puts a little life into my other favorite posting board.

Maybe I should stop telling Dave that I love him. I think there was an implied marriage threat in that thread. :lol:

Re: Mathman and skating math

There are studies done on skating moves based on physics. Here is where to find them:

www.tsn.ca/wtsn/figure_skating/main.asp

look at EXN.ca

Ladskater