aka...science room
skate boarding
Skateboarding is not just an art – it’s also a science. The science is not only in the mechanics and design of the board and wheels, but also in the way you move and do tricks.
Boarding is all down to finding the right combinations of energy, friction, momentum, elevation and of course balance. It's a skill that takes time to learn and master.
So what is the science behind skateboarding? To be a good skater you need to have a good sense of balance and good coordination. But don’t worry if you’re forever falling over, these are skills that improve with practice.
You also need to be able to work out the kinematics of a situation very quickly. In other words, you need to know how fast to go and in what direction. Again, this is a skill that improves with practice.
Balance
Balance is controlled by the vestibular apparatus of your inner ear. This structure contains hair-like cells which are connected to lots of tiny nerves. As your head moves, they wave about in the fluid of the inner ear and send signals to the brain about the position of your body and whether it is moving or not.
When the information your brain gets from these hairs is different to messages it gets from our eyes, we can suffer from motion sickness. Our brains just can’t cope with contradictions.
Coordination
Good coordination comes from having a good awareness of where all the different parts of your body are at any one time. During adolescence, many people find that their coordination goes haywire for a while. This is due to sudden growth spurts that make it difficult for your brain to know where your limbs are.
Coordination is controlled by a part of the brain called the cerebellum. It receives signals from all over the body and then adjusts the action of your muscles to make your movements smooth and accurate.
Kinematics
You’ve probably found that there is more than one combination of ramp angle and speed that allows you to rail slide successfully. If you increase your speed, you can decrease the angle of the ramp and still slide along the rail. Alternatively, if you decrease your speed, you need to increase the angle of the ramp.
However, there are limits to this. If the ramp is flat, it doesn’t matter how fast you are going, you will still crash painfully into the rail! And if the ramp is too steep you’ll find yourself merely jumping straight up into the air rather than travelling towards the rail.
The motion of the skateboardthrough the air is called projectile motion and the shape of its path through the air is called a parabola.
The angle of the ramp, how far the skateboard will travel, how long it will stay in the air and how fast it will go are all related to each other and can be worked out from a couple of equations.
The equations are sometimes called ‘constant acceleration equations’ because once the skateboard has left the ramp, the only acceleration that it experiences is gravity pulling it down to the ground. The acceleration due to gravity is constant at 10m/s/s.
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