the tindog coffeehouse

I love the Winter Olympics, which may seem odd for a native Texan who’s only been snow skiing once in his life (and by “skiing”, I mean awkwardly falling down down the bunny slope while trying not to break anything).

And now (as if the games weren’t already interesting enough), Popular Mechanics has a breakdown of the physics behind several Olympic events, including:

• Alpine skiing – “Alpine skiers’ knees sustain about 110 ft-lb of lateral torque during turns and nearly 300 pounds of total force at the joint—almost as much torque as can be found in the engines of a ski resort’s snow-removal trucks.”
• Hockey – “When a player blasts a slap shot 30 feet from the net with 125 pounds of force, the goalie has less than 200 milliseconds to react to the flying 3-inch-wide, 1-inch-thick puck.”
• Figure skating – “A 45-degree jump gives skaters 0.55 seconds of air time—enough to complete all but the devilish triple axel, which requires 0.65 to 0.75 seconds and a spin rate of 420 rpm—the engine-idling speed of some cars.”
• Ski jumping – “Laminated foam ski jumpsuits are one of the sports world’s most tightly regulated pieces of equipment. The reason: Even small tweaks to surface area can add lots of lift. ‘People were tinkering with the suits and flying like bats,’ says Troy Flanagan of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association. So the International Ski Federation standardized the gear. Suits can now be no more than 5 mm thick; the underwear, 3 mm. And, since airtight suits function as sails, the rules require materials that allow 40 liters of air per square meter to flow through them per second.”

Update, Feb. 13:
Like so many others around the world, I was shocked and saddened to hear last night about the tragic death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. While my original blog post was meant in jest, obviously the danger is very real for many of these atheletes, and consequently I have decided to amend the post out of respect. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and with the rest of the Georgian Olympic team during what is undoubtedly a difficult time.

Previously:
The reasons behind all the Olympic swimming records