Physics of Running (Part 1)

For my 20% Time in Physics, I am researching based on a sport that, I am sure many of you are involved in. You have all once ran at least once in your entire life. It does not have to mean running a sprinting event or marathon  Running includes times whereby, you may run up the stairs, or run while playing football vice versa. You may be wondering how physics is involved with running and therefore, my project will tell you just about, nearly everything you need to know about the physics behind running. Many questions may arise in your head right now while you are reading this and in fact, to be honest with you, many questions have been asked to me by my friends, such as:

What is the real definition of running? What is the difference in the physics behind a sprinter and a marathon runner? What are the forces generated during running? What is the path travelled by the runners centre of mass? How does arm swinging help running? What are the tracks curved? How does the material of the track help runners? Why do runners we spikes? Why do runners wear compressions?

The physics behind running includes a range of sub topics, therefore, i am only focusing on the physics of "sprinting." The word "sprinting" suggests distances up to 400meter only. Meanwhile, anything higher than 400-meter, is already known as a long distance run and would require a lot of endurance which most sprinters do not have as sprinters usually use up most of their oxygen in a short yet fast race.

Above is a photo of a pendulum. To understand the physics of sprinting, you have to think of your limbs acting like pendulums. If a pendulum is shorter in length, the speed of the mass at the bottom is longer. Therefore, you need to think of your feet as the mass at the end of the pendulum. To shorter the pendulum, your knees must be bent. It is difficult to run with your knees locked. You could also think of your arms as pendulums. You could probably find that swinging your arms which it is bent is much easier. 

The above photo is an Australian sprinter, Cathy Freeman springing form her starting block in a 400-meter women's run back in 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Notice the way her body structure is and her arms position. More information would be posted in Part 2 of my blog. Meanwhile, I would like to say thank you very much for reading :)

References

http://www.real-world-physics-problems.com/physics-of-running.html

http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/WL002085/olympic-sprinter-cathy-freeman-springing-from-the

http://physicstt.tripod.com/id11.html

http://previews.123rf.com/images/gl0ck33/gl0ck331110/gl0ck33111000005/10766965-Newtons-cradle-Stock-Photo-pendulum-newton-concept.jpg

Love, Badryaa!