Physics Behind a Long Jump Drill

How Far Will I Travel If Meghan Pushes Me off a Chair:

Over break Meghan, Aidan, and I had track practices. One of these practices we decided to discover the physics behind one of the drills we do in our jumps practice. For this drill one person sits on a chair and onther person is behind them and tips the chair back. Basically, the person is thrown off the chair and the objective is to get your butt to land where your feet do. We do this drill to practice our landing. Using Logger Pro, we were able to find my distance, xy velocities, and height.

This displays my velocity in the x direction. The results were large and negative because I was pushed from the chair to the ground.

Here we found my y velocity. My velocity in the y direction was small and negative becuase the chair was not very high off the ground and the push did not have a lot of momentum in the y direction.

This graph shows my distance from the chair to the ground. Using the measurements 2.3 and 3.5 meters (from teh graph), we found that I traveled 1.2 meter. I found this by subtracting 2.3 meters from 3.5 meters.

After studying the physics behind this drill I realized there are a lot more foces at work than we had expected. The force of meghan pushing me on the chair would have to be greater than the force of friction between me and the chair to allow me to be able to fly into the air. Overall, there are many different aspects of physics in each track event. For long jumpers, physics can be used to find out their maximum height versus the maximum distance. Athletes can use physics to study their event to improve their preformance. After studying this drill we learned that just the force of meghan pushing the chair can send me almost 4 feet. After studyig this the information found was helpful becuase knowing this we were able to realize and understand the importance of your form while jumping in order to maximize your distance. This drill is important for practicing your landing. It helps you to get as much extra distance as possible right before you land in the pit. The jumper is supposed to kick their legs foward to get an extra boost in the air extending their distance. Before this blog I thought this drill was pointless but after studing the physics I realized how important your landing is and if executed correctly I could gain almost four feet before landing in the pit.

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