Re: Half-pipe snowboarding

[Roger Haar <haar@PHYSICS.ARIZONA.EDU>]

James,
        Pumping like on a swing is the trick.  This
involves, basically squatting on the way down;
when one is on a horizontal surface standing (
raising PE without loosing KE) and stay standing
until the peak and then squat.

        Skateboarder do even odder things in that
sometimes the shoot right back down and sometimes
they land.  This is by a stand to squat as they
approach the top so that they have some horizontal
momentum.

Thanks
Roger Haar


*********************************************************************
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?
>
> PS. on the Olympic website they had a series of photos of a man doing a 1080
> degree spin.
>
> James Braunsdorf
> Mishawaka High School
>
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