The 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro begin a month from now.

The eyes of the world will be focused on competition and athlete’s performance. Many of them with performances that we mere mortals do not believe are possible and achieve extraordinary deeds!

That is why it is interesting to understand how some of these sports work and what actions of the athletes can be decisive in the search for a medal. We have already spoken here on the blog of physics present in Olympic sports such as swimming, athletics and, more specifically, in the 200 meters shallow. Today we will clarify how the pole vault works.

The sport originated in Europe, when people used long and thin sticks to jump from one side to another of streams and canals. Over time this technique has been incorporated into competitions that measure distance, not height. The sport as we know it today appeared around 1850 in Germany.

The modality was introduced in the Greek Olympics, in 1896. The established world records are of 6.10 meters for the men, height reached by the French Renaud Lavillenie, and 5.06 meters for the women, mark of the Russian Yelena Isinbayeva.

Physics

The movement performed by the athletes in pole vault is basically characterized by the transformation of kinetic energy into gravitational potential energy.

In order to achieve high heights, the athlete needs to run as much as he can, while loading the jumping stick, accumulating kinetic energy and then positioning the it in the socket on the ground and transforming this kinetic energy into elastic potential energy, deforming the stick that will give impulse to the athlete, raising it to a certain height, and becoming to gravitational potential energy by reaching the maximum possible height.

The speed reached during the race defines the kinetic energy available for the jump. Considering that this energy is not dispersed by other factors, such as air resistance, then the gravitational potential energy reached at the maximum altitude will be the same energy accumulated at the end of the race. We can calculate the height that an athlete will reach from the following equation:

In which ‘m’ is the mass of the athlete ‘v’ the velocity reached at the end of the race, ‘g’ the gravitational acceleration and ‘h’ is the maximum height reached.

The mass is present on both sides of the equation and, so, can be discarded. Knowing the value of the final speed of the athlete and that the gravitational acceleration is equal to 9.8 m/s, it’s easy to find the maximum height that the athlete can reach.

Using the common values ​​of maximum speed of 10 m/s for men and slightly less than that, 9 m/s for women, we can reach the value of 5.1 and 4.0 meters in height. But consider that this value corresponds to the gravitational center of the athlete, which is located in the center of his body, not on the ground, so we can add one meter to this result and we reach 6.1 meters for men and 5 meters for women, similar to the recorded marks.

So, do you want to know more about physics in sports? Check out the other articles and stay connected on Azeheb’s blog.