- HOME
- NEWS
- SPORTS
- BUSINESS
- FYI/LIVING
- ENTERTAINMENT
- OPINION
- JOBS
- CARS
- REAL ESTATE
- RENTALS
- CLASSIFIEDS
- SHOPPING
- EXTRAS
Posted on Thu, Aug. 21, 2008 07:05 PM
Pole vault
More News
The pole vault may be a field event in track and field, but you’d be surprised at how important running is in the process.
“When a person is running — or anything is moving — it has kinetic energy, the energy of movement,” said Michael Kruger, a UMKC physics professor. “The faster a person runs, the more energy he or she has.”
The pole vaulter builds energy by sprinting down the runway with the pole. The athlete then plants the pole into the box and an energy conversion takes place. The vaulter will bend the pole —sometimes nearly 90 degrees — and the energy is converted into elastic potential energy.
“That is the energy of bending things,” Kruger said.
“You know this if you stretch a rubber band, there’s energy stored in the rubber band. If you let go, that energy smacks you in the fingers and it was released to cause you pain. The pole vaulter converts his kinetic energy into this elastic potential energy — the bent pole — which then gets released and converted into gravitational potential energy.”
The bent pole recoils and launches the athlete into the air.
While the pole does most of the lifting, Kruger said an athlete also will push himself/herself up.
“I think he can push himself up almost a full meter,” said Kruger, who competed in the pole vault in high school. “That’s why once vaulters are pretty well developed. They’re pretty muscular, because they do push themselves up.”
The evolution on the pole has helped vaulters reach new heights. According to the International Association of Athletics Federations, bamboo poles were used in the early 20th century, then gave way to aluminum and steel, then to fiberglass. At these Olympics, the athletes are using a fiberglass and carbon fiber combination.
That allows for poles that don’t weigh as much, which helps when running, and are more flexible.
“People study this in great deal and build models of how this works,” Kruger said. “You want it to be bendable, but not too bendable.
“The bottom line is the efficiency of the energy of motion of the guy running being turned into gravitational potential energy by having that bendable pole.”
To reach Pete Grathoff, send e-mail to pgrathoff@kcstar.com
Posted on Thu, Aug. 21, 2008 07:05 PM
-
Management - Sales
Confidential Company
-
SERVICE TECHNICIAN
Superior Door Service, Inc.
-
LPN'S AND CMT'S
Garden Valley Nursing & Rehab
-
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT
Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church
@Nyx.CommentBody@