Optimistics: The Physics Of Gymnastics

The physics of gymnastics is a very complicated topic to study due to the many different factors involved in the stunts. What is gymnastics? Gymnastics is exercises developing or displaying physical agility and coordination. The modern sport of gymnastics typically involves exercises on uneven bars, balance beam, floor, and vault (for women), and horizontal bars, parallel bars, rings, floor, vault and pommel horse (for men). Vault and floor exercise are both unisex events and all of the events above are competed in the olympics. One of the most common vaults competed in the Olympics is the Yurchenko. Every Olympic gold medalist in vault since 1988 has performed a Yurchenko. Therefore the Yurchenko is a very popular vault. What does a Yurchenko …show more content…
Angular momentum is referring to when a gymnast leaves the springboard and/or vault table and it is one of their very few chances to use their momentum and velocity to their advantage. This is related to the obvious fact that more air time allows the gymnast to have more time to rotate. The gymnast tucks into a ball in order to increase velocity, this works because angular momentum and the mass of the gymnast are both constants, therefore leading to the goal of lowering the distance of the body from the axis of rotation in which causes the gymnast to accomplish more flips. If the gymnast successfully increases, then the gymnast will need less time to complete the rotations. The gymnast opens up from the tight ball-like position which causes the gymnast to slow down their rotational speed and make the landing easier. A gymnast only has two chances to gain angular momentum during other vaults while a gymnast performing a Yurchenko would have four chances to do so while vaulting. These opportunities are when the gymnast sprints down the vaulting runway and hurdles (jumps/steps) into the roundoff, when the gymnast popes off of his or her hands during the round off, when the gymnast hits the springboard, and when the gymnast pushes off of the vault table. The gymnast uses these opportunities to his or her advantage by increasing downward momentum when hitting the springboard, this creates an increase in the amount of upward moment the gymnast has. This happens again when the gymnast pushes off of the vault table using downward momentum and creates more upward momentum, this increase of upward momentum creates more time for the gymnast to rotate before