gymnastics – newton’s laws.

Cassie Jones, 4ab.

Newton’s First Law:Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state

of motion unless an external force is applied to it.

Newton’s first Law of Motion can be applied to gymnastics when on performing a giant (swinging around the high bar) on the uneven bars. Once applying force (a cast), the gymnast keeps their body as straight as possible to continue the swinging. They will keep swinging around the bar until an outside force is applied. In this case, the outside force would be body alignment. Once you start to bend, you will start to slow down. Also, if this force wasn’t applied, you would still end up stopping because of the friction applied.

Nastia Liukin, 5’ 2”, 99 lbs. (above & to the right)Deng Linlin, 4’ 5”, 68 lbs. (top two on the right)

Newton’s Second Law:

The acceleration of an object varies directly as the external unbalanced force applied to it and inversely as its

mass.

With gymnastics, Newton’s second Law of Motion is applied when it comes to mass. Gymnasts who are smaller (have less mass) can do some of the moves easier. This is because it is easier for them to spin faster, rotate around the bar quicker, etc. The

downfall with this is that they usually are weaker and cannot apply as much force, which also goes along with the second law. This is part of the reason why young gymnasts are considered to be more “valuable” than older. Also, if a gymnast is lighter & can apply more force on their jumps & leaps than a gymnast the same size, she will look much more impressive. If there was a group of gymnasts of different masses, but they’re strengths were all constant with their mass, they would usually have the same

acceleration.

Newton’s Third Law:For every action force on an object, there is an equal reaction force in the opposite direction on the object

exerting the action force.

Newton’s third law can be applied with pretty much anything in gymnastics. For example, when a gymnast is performing any type of move on the beam, the beam

would collapse if it didn’t exert a force back as she lands. The same goes for the floor and vault. When a gymnast uses a springboard, when the gymnast’s force is put against the board, the board gives off a force which gives the gymnast momentum.