Physics of Sports Video

Sports

All sports include physics. The physics of sports is an imperative part of the physical activity. Our second STEM Project of the year was to create a video showing our choice of sport and the physics involved within it to improve San Marin Sports. The physical activity that my group and I chose is potato sacking. Potato sacking is when one person runs at another person and throws them over their shoulder as they are running.

Physics of Sports Video:

My group for this project included Charley Conner, Gabby Bailey, and myself. We were first told to pick a sport. Our group decided on choosing a different sport that would be fun and enjoyable to film. Even though it's not a sport, we came up with potato sacking. Although this isn't a standard sport, this may be helpful for football players when tackling the other team. My group and I started off by coming up with our script and storyboard of the video. When we finished that, we started to film our clips. We began by Gabby practicing picking me up and placing me on her shoulder. It took a couple tries, but as we practiced more, we knew how to do it consistently. We started filming Gabby potato sacking me and continuing to run with me on her shoulder. We filmed multiple clips of Gabby running at me and running with me on her shoulder around the school. When we finished filming all of our clips, we put them together and edited them. Then we filmed the calculations for me and Gabby. We found the force of Gabby exerted on me and the vertical, horizontal, and total velocity. After we put together all the clips and calculations, we recorded the voice overs. After a bit more editing and adding some background music, our video was complete!

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Script

Physics of Sports Script

Calculations

Force (F) = (mass) (acceleration)

The force that we calculated was the force being exerted to pick me up, which was 590 Newtons or 132 pounds. This is equivalent to the downward force of a baby giraffe.

Power (P) = work/time

The amount of power that Gabby uses to pick me up was calculated to 554.6 Watts.

Vertical Velocity (v) = vertical distance/time in air

We calculated the vertical velocity of me falling onto Gabby's shoulder, which we found to be .94 m/s.

Horizontal Velocity (v) = horizontal distance/time of lift

We calculated the horizontal velocity of me moving forward, which came out to be 1.1 m/s.

Total Velocity (Pythagorean Theorem)

We used the Pythagorean Theorem, or a squared+b squared=c squared, to calculate the total velocity. By doing this, we found the hypotenuse side, which is 1.45 m/s.

Force of Impact (mass) (velocity) = (force) (time)

We calculated the force of the impact of my body and Gabby's body. This came out to be 171 Newtons or 38 pounds, which is equivalent to a cinder block.

Reflection:

Throughout the process of making this video, I learned a lot while having fun! Our group worked efficiently together. We divided up the work and each did our own tasks. We decided on filming Gabby, the tallest, pick me up because I'm the shortest. Charley did the calculations and filmed Gabby and I. Gabby edited our video put together all the clips while I did the voice overs. We each pitched in our own ideas.

I enjoyed this project because there was more physical movement compared to our previous project, our Rube Goldberg Machine. In our last project, I had trouble staying within my group because I was socializing with other groups. For our Physics of Sports Video, I do think I slightly improved in staying with my group because they are my friends, but I still think I could've done a little better. Our group also had a little trouble with the calculations. As we were doing the calculations, we came to a slight dilemma. We realized that we chose a sport that caused complications in calculating the physics. Finding the total velocity was difficult because we weren't sure which particular action we needed to find the velocities of. After some logical thinking, we decided on taking the horizontal and vertical velocity of the actions it takes for me to get onto Gabby's shoulder.

I think one of the reasons why my group and I worked so well with each other was because we are all close with one another. Our group communicated our thoughts and ideas, which resulted in a successful and complete video. I think the unexpected cancelled school days due to the power outage threw us off a bit, time-wise, but everything was planned out well, we used our time wisely, and it all came together successfully.

By successfully completing this project, I learned that managing your time, communication skills, problem solving, and being productive are all imperative skills that can help me in the upcoming projects. Also, having fun can improve your working process.

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