Usain Bolt is the fastest man in the world, but just how
fast is he?
That's the kind of fact a sports engineer can work out!
The Beautiful
Games exhibition at the V&A Museum of Childhood, London,
has a box where people can post questions about sports science.
These questions will be answered by sports engineers on the Engineering Sport website. The sports
engineers started by answering the question How fast is Usain
Bolt?
How fast is Usain Bolt?
Usain Bolt is the fastest man on the planet. He's the world
record holder in the 100 and 200 metre sprints.
We can easily calculate Usain Bolt's average speed. Speed is the
change in distance over time.
We know how long it took him to run 100 and 200 metres, so we
can work out his speed.
|
Event
|
Distance (m)
|
Time (s)
|
Average speed
(m/s)
|
Average speed
(mph)
|
|
100 m sprint
|
100
|
9.58
|
10.44
|
23.35
|
|
200 m sprint
|
200
|
19.19
|
10.42
|
23.31
|
Those numbers only show Usain Bolt's average
speed. They don't show his maximum speed.
Luckily, when Usain Bolt set his current world record at the
2009 Berlin World Championships, the International Association of
Atheletics Federations collected lots of data.
The data on
Usain Bolt showed that he reached at top speed of 12.27 metres
per second, which is 27.44 miles per hour!
How fast is Usain Bolt compared to other land
animals?
Other land animals are much faster than humans. Even a domestic
cat beats Usain Bolt!
Cheetahs are the fastest land animals, with a top speed of 72
miles per hour. That's faster than the speed limit on UK
motorways!
London 2012 Olympics
Will Usain Bolt beat his own world record again? We'll have to
wait until the 100 metre final on August 5 to find out. We've got
our fingers crossed.
This article has been adapted, with kind permission, from an
article on Engineering Sport. To
view the original article, visit How fast is Usain
Bolt? Engineering Sport