Last updated on 19 May/98
| Instructor: Kenneth K. Young. Office
B213 Tel: 543 4186, email: young@phys.washington.edu URL ../ Teaching Assistant: Anton Ryzhov. Office B149. tel: 543 6669. email: ryzhovav@u.washington.edu. |
Class meetings in A118
Physics-Astronomy Building on MWF at 10:30. Office hours: MWF at 11:30; and Tu,Th
at 10:30 at the lab B143; or by appointment. |
The process of condensing your knowledge is a good discipline that will help you to learn and understand.
The aspiring student should have at least have successfully completed college level science and math; or at least have been a whiz at high school science and math; especially in the "story-book" problems.
Mathematics is not just another language. Mathematics is a language plus reasoning; it is like a language plus logic. Mathematics is a tool for reasoning. It is in fact a big collection of the results of some person's careful thought and reasoning. By mathematics it is possible to connect one statment to another. From "Character of Physical Law by Richard Feynman.
a) Web documents on this site.
b) Physics 208A notes and excercises , available from ASUW lecture notes at the HUB.
c) Muscles, Reflexes, and Locomotion. Thomas A. McMahon. $25. This is a superb book on the fundamentals of locomotion which range from basic muscle mechanics and thermodynamics to coordinated motion. There is a thought provoking section on the effects of scale. What if any is there any advantage to a particular size for a particular sport?
d) The Biomechanics of Sports Techniques, James G. Hay. This text covers major sports. Baseball, Basketball, Football, Golf, Gymnastics, Softball, Swimming, Track and Field.
e) Sport Science, Peter J. Brancazio. This is a highly readable book by a sports fanatic physicist.
f) The Physics of Baseball, Robert K. Adair. Professor Adair is the Physicist of the National League. Professor Adair's evocation of insects sitting on baseballs to give you some idea of how flow of fluids work is masterful.
g) World-in-Motion. CD for Physics Analysis Software with examples. Physics Curriculum and instruction. 22585 Woodhill Dr., Lakeville, MN 55044. Tel: 612 6461 3470
h) Physics of Sports, Ed. Angelo Armetnti, Jr, American Institute of Physics (1992). This is a collection of articles on the physics of sports that have been published by AIP and has been a starting point for many of the developments in physics of sports.
i) Bicycling Science, F. Rowland and D.G. Wilson, MIT Press (1985). There has been a lot of developments on training since this book was published but you'll find it to be a very useful guide on the limiting factors for producing speed for various durations from sprints to long distance.
How does Sam Perkins optimize his stroke to get a season average of 41% in the 3-point basketball shot? Does the apparently upright posture of Michael Johnson, the Olympic Champ in 200 and 400 meter go against conventional wisdom? How does a modern larger head tennis racket make us better players? What's the basis for the sculling type stroke used by successful free style swim racers? Why does "thinking" hard while shooting the basketball usually make things worse? Why does a curve ball curve? and why does it appear to "break"? Why do some thicker keels and rudders make a boat go faster than a knife edge, thin keels and rudders? Why does the optimal golf shot off the tee take off at about 20 degrees while the optimal shot put is launched at 45 degrees? Why do big runners and swimmers in distance events go no faster than small athletes? Are there some sports where big is best? or small is best? .. and why All this and more!
Each student will be expected to carry out a sports measurement as part of the course.
There is considerable scientific evidence that the healthy personality is one who not only plays, but who takes his play seriously. -Dr. William Menninger
You are motivated by curiosity about high level of sports performance and have the desire to improve your own level of physical performance. This is the premise for this course. There are many elements in optimum sports performance which includes physiology, psychology as well as the science of motion. In this course, we will touch on all of the elements but we will concentrate on the PHYSICS of sports which is concerned with the MECHANICS of motion. This includes kinematics, dynamics, and the ideas of momentum, energy and power and the efficient use of the human body and of sports equipment to achieve high levels of performance.
Our historical development has left us with a mish-mash of ways of measuring physical quantities (e.g. foot, mile, meter, pound, Newtons, horsepower, watts). In this course, we will use the STANDARD INTERNATIONAL UNITS (METRIC). There is great virtue to the use of these (as well as some disadvantages) as you will see during this course. I will expect you to develop facility at using the SI units and at converting other units into SI units. The lectures will consist of the uncovering some of the subjects from your reading and exploring them in greater depths. We will have many physical demonstrations and video slow-motion demonstrations of the physics points. There will be ample opportunities for questions. I quite believe that the classroom time is well used if my presentations and your reading raises lots of questions.
Many of the class notes and problem solutions etc will be available on the website for this class. This will be hyperlinked from the study schedule section of this document.
It would be best if you were to access these notes from your own web browser or from one of the browsers available from the University. Click here for a list of sites for the web browsers on campus and for how to convert your home computer to a web browser.
How to Study Physics. Notes from the University of Texas.
The out-of-towner on 5th Ave in NYC asks "How do I get to Carnegie Hall?". The answer " Practice, Practice". While you would not expect to learn how to play the piano or bat a baseball by reading about the subject, many students have the mistaken belief that Physics can be learnt by reading about the subject only. It would be best to practice, practice, practice with the actual phenomena.. unfortunately, this is not practical for this lecture class. I offer you practice with the formal theoretical parts. I leave the physical practice to your own spare-time activity. I will assign weekly problem sets. At the end of the weekly period, I will give you solutions to the problems and a discussion session. I will not collect the problems for grading. However, to encourage you to carry out the problem practicing assiduously, I will give tests rather often.....every two weeks. The tests will consist mostly of variations of the homework problems. To do well on the tests, you must practice, practice. You should expect to at least study for two hours for each hour of class. Expect that this class will take at least 9 hours per week.
Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I might remember. But let me do it, and I will both understand and Remember.
Chinese Proverb.
You'll find that you learn immense amounts when you verbalize the ideas. During the business hours, the physics TA's in the study Center [mezzanine of PAB A wing] will offer help tutoring you in physics. There will also be tutoring sessions in B143 at 11:30 on M W F; and 10:30 on Tu and Th.
I expect that you will learn to be able to characterize a sports activity in the framework of physics. I will also expect interpret data in tabular or graphical form to use this to evaluate physics performance in some standard physical parameters. TESTS. There will be 4 tests during the term and the final during finals week. The tests will consist of questions which are similar to the weekly problem sets. Each of the 4 tests will count for 1 unit. The final will count for 2 units. Your grade will be figured from the 4 best of the 6 units. Each exam will be weighted according to the average and standard deviation for the particular exam. The dropping of the worst unit is meant to take care of your "off-day" or "illness-day" or "---?". You can choose (with permission) to retake the unit tests during the period for the final exam. However, these exams will only count up to the 2.0 for that exam. You may bring a help page with constants, formulae, etc. which you have made to the exam. Calculators are permitted but I would prefer that you leave your solutions in unrationalized form.
A student may find the pace in class too slow and might choose to carry out a sports-physics project in order to study some particular sports area in greater depth. A typical project may be a measurement of a sports activity with analysis in physics terms. The project may count for 2 units and may be used in lieu of 2 units of the TESTS. A student carrying out a project for evaluation would then be graded on the best 4 of his possible 8 units. Usually, only those students who are deeply involved with athletics and have access to team equipment find this to be a viable alternative. I would expect the project to be reported formally in the style of a normal scientific report with:
The project could be submitted in hard-copy paper form or it could be in multimedia form. For example, each student at UW has the resources to make their own web page. [This uses the computer named "WEBER".] In this form, you could have text, pictures, videos as well as sound. Outstanding projects would be transferred to a permanent file where this could be a library resource for future generations as well as a resource for the sportspersons around the world. What would also be welcomed could be projects on video tape. Since we are studying motion, videos of various kinds of motion would be welcomed in tape form. I have facilities for using 8mm as we as VHS tapes. [No BETA max, please.] Of course a video presentation should be accompanied by text... probably in hard copy form for legibility. A brief description of how to make your own web page is described here.
Before you start a project, you must present me with an outline and have my approval. The project must meet minimum levels of breadth and depth. While some library research is always necessary, the project should contain some measurements made by the student.
A valid project must undergo several stages, each with
its deadline. The stages are:
1. submission and approval of an outline for the project. 5th
week 28 April
2. submission and approval of a first draft of the project. 8th
week 19 May
3. submission of the final draft of the project [by the date of
the final exam.] 9 June.
In the matter of physics, the first lessons should contain nothing but what is experimental and interesting to see. A pretty experiment is in itself often more valuable than twenty formulas extracted from our minds; it is particularly important that a young mind that has yet to find its way about the world of phenomena should be spared the formulae altogether.
Albert Einstein.
| date | test | Subject | test units |
| 13 April | Test 1 | volumes 1,2 | 1 |
| 29 April | test 2 | volumes 3,4 | 1 |
| 13 May | test 3 | volume 5 | 1 |
| 27 May | test 4 | volumes 6, 9 | 1 |
| 8 June. 8:30-10:20 | Final Exam | volumes 1 to 10. | 2 |
There will be NO make-up exams. There are 6 possible units that you can obtain and only the top 4 will be used for your grade.
| item | test1 | test2 | test3 | test4 | final |
| max possible | 130 | 120 | 180 | 130 | |
| max obtained | 125 | 120 | 175 | 115 | |
| average obtained | 86.5 | 94 | 129 | 70 | |
| min obtained | 35 | 34 | 20 | 10 | |
| standard deviation | 23.1 | 22 | 37 | 30 | |
| a | 87 | 85 | 125 | 70 | |
| b | 24 | 22 | 37 | 30 | |
| c | 2.65 | 2.70 | 2.70 | 2.70 |
gp = [your grade - a]/b + c
eg. If your test1 grade is 100, the the gp = (100-87)/24 + 2.65 = 3.2 The constants will be unique to each test based on the tested performance of the class. Your gp may go as high as 4.3 for an individual test. I will choose averge the best 4 units for your final grade.
Things ought to be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.
 US Olympic Team test of aerodynamics of bike and rider. |
Technology in Sports1. materials |
1. Outcome of World Series. Read Krane, p. 274 PoS.
2. What's the chance of winning a match in tennis if the chance
of winning a game is known. Read:Fischer, page 275, PoS.
Frohlich, p120 PoS.
1. Pretty fast for someone so small. Moves pretty well for a
big guy
2. He's quick but slow. [said about Steve Largent]
3. Sailing upwind. The wind pushes in direction of motion only??
Rye, p 254 PoS.
4. sailing faster than the wind. Once you're travelling downwind
with the wind speed, the relative wind is zero!
5. The stability of bicycles. [At first it seemed simple...
angular momentum of wheels... but then Jones proved it wrong.]
Jones, p 169 PoS.
Reverse Steering. of a bike.
6. Scaling.
Measurements favor elastic scaling. McMahon, Muscles, Reflexes and Locomotion.
Intrinsic Limits to Performance
Larger Size Illustration of Muscles
deduce: to infer from general reasoning
induce: to draw from particular facts.
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