Re: Half-pipe snowboarding

[John Mallinckrodt <ajmallinckro@CSUPOMONA.EDU>]

First of all, the half pipe is itself superimposed upon a
decidedly downward slope.  Second (and probably less important)
the snowboarder "pumps" in much the same fashion as a person on a
swing.

John Mallinckrodt      mailto:ajm@csupomona.edu
Cal Poly Pomona          http://www.csupomona.edu/~ajm

On Wed, 13 Feb 2002, James Braunsdorf wrote:

> In the Olympic snowboarding event the snowboarder goes down one side of the
> half-pipe and then rises as high as 10 feet above the other side.
>
> If we did this with a bowling ball on a hard surface we would not expect the
> additional potential energy unless we really pushed ot give it an increased
> initial velocity as well as the gravitational PE that it has.
>
> The athletes did not appear to have much forward speed going into this move.
>   What do they do to gain the extra height?