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Course Description:
While watching sports scenes you must have felt that your knowledge of physics is just not enough to
understand all aspects of it. In this course you will learn which additional forces are at play in
different sports and why a curve ball curves? or why a ping pong ball dunks? You will also understand
the use of energy and power in basketball, cycling, and other sports. Science has been illuminating
sports for decades and will play even more significant role in high-speed competitive sports of the
future. This course will offer you a whole new way of viewing and understanding the sports you love.
Group projects will help in exploring these topics further and at deeper level.
Course Goals:
This is a short course which starts with the assumption that you know at least some basic mechanics.
A few review sheets will be available and key concepts will be reviewed in the class too.
By the end of the course, you will:
Develop a deeper understanding of basic physics concepts via their applications to sports.
Learn image, video and sound analysis (using software) to help you extract useful data from sporting events
Develop an appreciation for the amount of science and engineering that goes into a sporting event, from the training of players to the design of equipment and playing fields.
History of the Physics of Sports
The real history of the subject is difficult to trace and the reader is referred to other
texts. Here we would point
out the 'modern history' of the subject. In early 1850s the subject of rotating artillery shells was explored by the
German professor Heinrich Magnus. In this project he investigated sideways deflection of artillery shells which were
rotating. In 1877 Lord Rayleigh wrote a paper on the irregular flight of a tennis-ball. It can be found
here.
Starting with an introduction to basic concepts in physics learn why a curve
ball curves, why a ping pong ball dunks, how the speed and temperature of bobsled
critically define its trajectory and dynamics, etc. The course will try to build
general understanding of physics needed to explain various sports in a greater
depth and to appreciate the amount of science and engineering that goes into
designing sporting equipment.
Course Number: AS.360.167.13
Credits: 1
Distribution: N E
Dates: Monday 1/8/2018 - Friday 1/26/2018
Times: Monday - 6-8:30 | Friday - 6-8:30
Location: Homewood Campus, Hodson 213
Instructor: Dr. Muhammad Ali Yousuf
Textbook: Michael Lisa, The Physics of Sports.
The book is recommended but not required. If you really want it, renting an electronic copy will be the cheapest option.
I am told that the electronic version has interactive exercises too.
An Introduction to the Physics of Sports
Author: Vassilios McInnes Spathopoulos
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Year: 2013
ISBN: 978-1483930077
We are thankful to many of our readers for taking interest in this website and suggesting even more interesting links and ideas.
Here are just a few valuable contributions. We'll be adding more soon. Each subsection contains the name of the person/orgaization
making the contribution.
Contributed by Ted Lindblom of Barnet Dulaney Perkins Eye Center
"Here is a link to "How Baseball Players See a Fastball" published by Barnet Dulaney Perkins Eye Center which details the science
behind a baseball player being able to hit a fastball pitch. It highlights the amount of time it takes a fastball to travel to
home plate vs. the amount of time it takes to blink and a player's ability to predict movement, demonstrating how truly amazing
the hitting process is:
https://www.goodeyes.com/bdp-news/how-baseball-players-see-fastball/.
Contributed by Clayton Hudson, Communications manager for SaveOnEnergy.com
"I was searching for educational science websites and came across your page. We have created a free interactive guide to
Kinetic and Potential Energy
Our guide is easy to follow and contains numerous graphics that assist with the comprehension of the material."
Contributed by Prof. Don R. Mueller on his work (Physics professor and former pro baseball pitcher)
Finally, I show off a little ambidexterity in this next article along with my Two-racket Tennis friend from LaLa-land who
was happy to have me include his photo in The Buffalo News.
I do enjoy a rousing game of what I call Two-racket Tennis"
Some other Physics of Sports Courses and their Websites
These short video clips are for actual classroom presentation and can be used for activities and group discussions
about a particular sport. They may also become the basis for a research project. Keep in mind that if you need to really
study a topic, you will need to search for "high speed video of ..." to find good videos which you can analyze with
a video analysis software.
You will need the Audacity software to record and analyze the sound spectrum. Audacity is free, open source, cross-platform software for recording and editing sounds. It can be found here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
The timing of this course is such that it will end just before them as the 2018 Winter Olympics will begin on: Friday, February 9,
and end on: Sunday, February 25. Hence you are encouraged to explore these sports during this course and then use your newly gained
knowledge to understand different sports during Olympics.
If you have come to this page (or this part of the page) thinking that this is the CTY's
(Center for Talented Youth) course of the same name, please understand that it is not.
However, I am the course mentor for that course too and hire instructioanl staff to teach that course.
If you have worked with CTY in the past, or will be a TA/INST for this course in near future, you might
already know me. The information here can be of value to you too as all these resources can be used there.
You just have to understand that the audience is different and lectures here are not as interactive as they
should be for young CTY students.
If you are looking for summer TA positions for this course at CTY, you may apply
online
and let me know via email address given below. The course is offered at UC Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz, California) and
Roger Williams University (Bristol, Rhode Island) sites and CTY provides room and board on site. Travel to the site is NOT included.
Some Lesson Plan and Student Worksheets to help you at CTY