Sports (Experimenting With Everyday Science)

Cover......Page 1
Experimenting with Everyday Science - Sports......Page 4
Contents......Page 6
Introduction......Page 8
Safety precautions......Page 9
1 The Scientific Athlete......Page 12
Experiment 1: Feeling Your pulse......Page 14
Experiment 2: Staying in Balance......Page 19
Experiment 3: Measuring Human reaction Time......Page 24
Experiment 4: Measuring Body Flexibility......Page 30
Experiment 5: pushing Muscles to the Limit......Page 35
Experiment 6: running Distances vs. Speed......Page 40
2 May the Force Be with (or Against) You!......Page 45
Experiment 7: How Gravity Affects Jumping......Page 46
Experiment 8: Controlling How Fast objects Can Fall......Page 51
Experiment 9: How the Angle at which an
object Is Thrown Affects Distance......Page 57
Experiment 10: How Shoe Design Affects Friction......Page 62
Experiment 11: How Lubricant Affects Friction......Page 68
Experiment 12: Testing Your Center of Gravity......Page 74
3 The Spin Is In......Page 78
Experiment 13: How Spinning Wheel Speed Affects Balance......Page 79
Experiment 14: Testing the Speed of rotation......Page 83
Experiment 15: Throwing a Football......Page 87
Experiment 16: Testing the Spin of a Spherical Ball......Page 91
4 Actions and Reactions......Page 96
Experiment 17: Applying Newton’s Laws of Motion......Page 97
Experiment 18: Testing a Ball’s Ability to Bounce......Page 101
Experiment 19: Hitting a Ball on a Baseball Bat’s “Sweet Spot”......Page 108
Experiment 20: How a Leg Acts Like a Lever......Page 113
Experiment 21: How resonance Affects Motion......Page 118
5 Smash and Crash......Page 122
Experiment 22: How Mass and Velocity
Affect Momentum of a Moving object......Page 123
Experiment 23: Changing the Impulse of a Force on a Soccer Ball......Page 128
Experiment 24: The Force of Colliding objects......Page 133
Experiment 25: Testing Safety Helmet Materials......Page 138
6 Technology and the Future of Sports......Page 142
Glossary......Page 149
Bibliography......Page 151
Further resources......Page 152
picture Credits......Page 154
Index......Page 155
About the Author......Page 161