Daily Archives: August 2, 2011

Feeling Jumpy

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The Virtuosi – Physics in Sports: The Fosbury Flop

The Fosbury Flop came into the High Jumping scene in the 1968 Olympics, where Dick Fosbury used the technique to win the gold medal. The biggest difference between the Flop and previous methods is that the jumper goes over the bar upside down (facing the sky). This allows the jumper to bend their back so that their arms and legs drape below the bar

It is significant that Fosbury is not modeled as a sphere.

 

Dot Physics: World Record Blob Jump

I guess the best explanation for how it works is that it is like a giant see-saw. When people jump down on one side of the huge airbag, the other side goes up. If you consider small energy losses, then the work done by the bag in slowing the falling people down is the same work done on the launched person.

And the Winner is… The Turboencabulator

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Several years ago, Rockwell International decided to get into the heavy duty transmission business. We were getting ready to tape our first introduction video, as a warm up, the professional narrator began what has become a legend within the trucking industry. This man should have won an academy for his stellar performance. Now remember this is strictly off the cuff, nothing is written down, this became the biggest talk in the industry, vs our new product which we were introducing. I think you will enjoy this once in a lifetime performance from this gentleman.

That there’s some awesome word salad, with a creamy low-calorie cryptojargon sauce. The Wikipedia writeup has a reasonable approximation of the transcript.

Update: more fun at turboencabulator.info