"Faster (Citius), higher (Altius), stronger (Fortius)" is the motto of the modern Olympic Games.
"Faster" requires speed, "higher" requires energy, and "stronger" requires strength. "More unity" requires a broad sense of "interpersonal cohesion"
Completing the action itself is a mechanical process, and improving the performance of the competition requires mechanical research. Spectators watched skiers, skaters and bobsleighists come to the slopes, rinks and tracks of the arena to compete for the glory of the quadrennial Olympic Games, but behind it was the presentation of mechanics and science and technology.
Skating is all mechanics, and Olympic hopefuls like Wu Dajing and Zhou Yang look easy as they jump and spin gracefully on the ice. But the scientists and engineers behind it will even use carbon nanotubes to help reduce vibrations on skis.
Skaters who spin jumps usually open their arms first, then tighten their arms during the jump and release them again when they are on ice. Is this to show off their incredible talent? not! Here are the laws of mechanics. When they unfold the initial rotation with their arms, they have a certain amount of angular momentum, which is determined by the rotation rate and mass distribution. As they extend their arms in, they move the mass closer to the axis of rotation, which will make their angular velocity smaller.
The laws of mechanics tell us that in the absence of other forces, the angular momentum of rotating objects must remain constant, so their rotational velocity increases to compensate for the redistribution of their masses. When they landed after experiencing an amazingly fast spin, they opened their arms again, reducing the rotation speed again, allowing them to glide in a straight line.
The same principle applies to aerial techniques completed by skiers and snowboarders – when completing more complex techniques, athletes begin to make themselves as high as possible and unfold as much as possible, and then adduct to rotate themselves faster, thereby maintaining a high angular velocity.
In addition to being subjected to friction, skiing has a huge effect on another force (air resistance) that physicists hate. When you see photos of top skiers in action during a race, they always bend over and maintain a tight posture to minimize their windward area in the wind. This reduces the resistance they are subjected to, allowing them to accelerate down the mountain faster.
However, skiing victory is not as simple as rolling a ball and going straight, the former requires following a route with countless turns. The winning skier is the one who does the best job of the process, leaning inward as much as possible to minimize the total distance they have to slide. This helps in two ways: the shorter the glide distance and the less time there is at a given speed; the shorter the distance, the less negative work the friction does.
Friction is hated by physicists because its effects are related to paths. The longer the path, the more energy skiers lose due to friction, and the slower they glide along the route.
A common feature of all Winter Olympics is that they all rely on the smoothness of snow and ice. Curling on the ice is slippery because the ice is slippery, top skiers climb to high places because snow and air resistance are resistant to the human body, while figure skaters can turn and jump gracefully because the ice is very slippery.
The key to skating is that there is a thin layer of liquid on the surface, the source of which has long been debated in physics — for years, the classical explanation is that pressure from above lowers the melting point of the ice under the ice blade, but this effect is really not enough to explain why skaters can skate in extreme cold.
The modern interpretation is that at depths ice is a crystal structure, but the bond arrangement between molecules on the surface is no longer irregular, which makes it easier for molecules located on the surface to become liquid, thus presenting a slippery feeling that we can experience.
There are basically three kinds of forces that govern athletes: downward gravity; aerodynamic resistance, which acts in the opposite direction of the athlete's progress; and in many sports, centrifugal forces are presented to the athlete, such as when skaters slide around curves.
In addition to these three basic forces, the most critical internal force of the human body, this force is the "generalized force." It is the result of the interaction between athlete training and talent.
The three basic forces are the main factors that athletes and scientists need to consider in the Winter Olympics.
- To reduce friction, skis and skis are waxed before use. Professional wax technicians have around 500 different products to choose from and choose the right wax for the snow conditions.
- When the snow is wet, an additive called fluorine is added to the wax. But if you add too much, you will create more friction. Antistatic waxes can also be used to reduce static charges that accumulate during long races.
-The ski jump is actually made of ceramics instead of snow. When wet with water, they have the same frictional properties as snow, but allow the sport to be performed in almost the same conditions all year round.
- In order to combat air resistance, athletes wear tights. But in many sports, the tights were torn. You can make a few holes in the tights to leak air, thereby reducing the rate of damage. However, this proposal was rejected because it may slightly increase the resistance.
- In other sports, equipment is essential to help athletes perform at their best. In a luge race, lighter runners can wear a weight vest to minimize the advantages of heavier runners.
- In curling, players wear rubber-soled shoes on one foot and Teflon shoes on the other, with the friction of the former giving them thrust and the latter having a very low coefficient of friction that makes them easy to slide.
-Designers use computer simulations to make sure it can adapt to a range of different tracks.