I chose figure skating because I figured there was a lot of math involved so there would be endless possibilities of what I could talk about in this topic. I also find it very fascinating to watch, although I can barely skate myself. Types of math that is involved in figure skating is angles, velocity, speed, timing, inertia, and many more. I will explain how these apply to math and figure skating. :-)
As you can see there is a lot of math applied to figure skating. If you don't know your basics then you my end up on your face :-)
- Angles- Angles of the skater and the ice can affect there balance. The desired angle for takeoff in a trick or jump will be 45 degrees. In order to be able to attain this, the skaters must have low hips and long strides.
- Velocity-
- Time/Speed- A skater must use timing a lot during their routines. They have to know at what time during the music they throw their tricks and when to end. This also ties in with how fast they need to go. This is because they have to gain enough speed to throw tricks and they also need to know what their speed needs to be to time the tricks and jumps at the right times. The greater the force, or push, off the ice is, the faster the skater's speed will be.
- Inertia- Inertia is basically the spinning in skating. Inertia increases when the skater tucks their arms close to their body. The skating will continue to spin until an outside force acts upon them. (basically one of the number one laws of inertia.) Usually the act would be the friction of the skates on the ice.
As you can see there is a lot of math applied to figure skating. If you don't know your basics then you my end up on your face :-)