The Mechanics of Snowboarding by Toby Evans (10P)
Whilst watching the winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, I was intrigued by both the sports, and the mechanics behind them, particularly the half-pipe snowboarding. The snowboarders accelerate down a slightly angled slope, climb the pipe and perform jumps and tricks. Shaun White won an amazing gold whilst Yuto Totsuka crashed out since he failed to complete his trick before he landed. One more second in the air could have made all the difference, so I decided to investigate the circumstances which would optimise performance.
A successful halfpipe jump optimises air time and maximises height, my research therefore investigates the mechanics which facilitate this, illustrated below .
Velocity of snowboarder at take- off
V o
Trajecto ry angle
C
A
∆ℎ
Velocity of snowboarder at base of halfpipe
V b
B
Shaun enters the half pipe at A and gathers speed whilst descending at an angle . At point B, he climbs the pipe at an angle 𝜃 , increasing vertical height by ∆ℎ . The angle of take-off at point C is . To get the gold, Shaun needs to perform the maximum number of tricks whilst airborne and attain a maximum height. So, I want to find out the values of the variables which will maximise both time in the air, t, and maximum height reached, Hmax. Assuming zero air resistance and minimal friction, the angle of the climb, 𝜃 , does not
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