Physics of Sports Video: The Lacrosse Face Off
Project Overview
Mr. Pitti, the athletic director at San Marin, contacted Mr. Williams and the STEM Program to create Physics of Sports videos in order to deepen ours and the players understanding of physical concepts of the sport and to improve technique and understanding of the sport itself. Our group chose lacrosse, and more specifically, the lacrosse face off.
In the lacrosse face off, two players of opposing teams meet in a crouching position with the ball placed in between their two sticks. With a sign from an official, the two players attempt to wrestle to gain possession of the ball. To do this, one must attempt to hold of the head of the other player's stick to prevent it from cupping the ball, while also trying to twist their stick as quickly and with as much force as possible. The person who cups the ball first and thrusts it to their side and away from the other player wins the face off, and their team gains possession of the ball. The face off is very essential to the fate of the game.
Our two primary focuses during this project were to calculate torque and force. Force is a push or a pull. Torque is the tendency of a force to rotate an object around a fulcrum, an axis, or a pivot point. To measure torque, you must multiply the force applied by the measure of the lever arm. To calculate force, you must take the mass times the acceleration of the object. To measure the acceleration of the object, you must divide the velocity by the time traveled. And to find the velocity, you must divide the distance traveled by the time traveled.
Since the head of the stick is placed perpendicularly to the ground, it travels in a quarter-circle path. The distance is taken by the equation C=1/4_d. We end up with a distance traveled of 27.17cm. To find the time traveled, we timed Nick flipping his stick from starting to finishing position during a face off with Cole. We ended up with an average of 0.272cm. We come up with a velocity of 0.998m/s.
To find our acceleration, we divide the velocity by the time traveled, and come up with 3.67m/S2.
And finally, to find our force, we take the mass of the head and multiply it by the acceleration. Our force is 0.652 Newtons.
In the lacrosse face off, two players of opposing teams meet in a crouching position with the ball placed in between their two sticks. With a sign from an official, the two players attempt to wrestle to gain possession of the ball. To do this, one must attempt to hold of the head of the other player's stick to prevent it from cupping the ball, while also trying to twist their stick as quickly and with as much force as possible. The person who cups the ball first and thrusts it to their side and away from the other player wins the face off, and their team gains possession of the ball. The face off is very essential to the fate of the game.
Our two primary focuses during this project were to calculate torque and force. Force is a push or a pull. Torque is the tendency of a force to rotate an object around a fulcrum, an axis, or a pivot point. To measure torque, you must multiply the force applied by the measure of the lever arm. To calculate force, you must take the mass times the acceleration of the object. To measure the acceleration of the object, you must divide the velocity by the time traveled. And to find the velocity, you must divide the distance traveled by the time traveled.
Since the head of the stick is placed perpendicularly to the ground, it travels in a quarter-circle path. The distance is taken by the equation C=1/4_d. We end up with a distance traveled of 27.17cm. To find the time traveled, we timed Nick flipping his stick from starting to finishing position during a face off with Cole. We ended up with an average of 0.272cm. We come up with a velocity of 0.998m/s.
To find our acceleration, we divide the velocity by the time traveled, and come up with 3.67m/S2.
And finally, to find our force, we take the mass of the head and multiply it by the acceleration. Our force is 0.652 Newtons.
To find the torque we multiply this force by the radial distance of the lever arm, 8.65cm. We have a final torque of 0.0564 Nm.
Need-to-Know Concepts:
Momentum: the quantity of motion of a moving body, measured by multiplying its mass and its velocity.
Rotational Forces: (torque) the tendency of a force to rotate an object around an axis, fulcrum, or pivot point.
Torque: (see Rotational Forces)
Friction: the resistance that an object or surface encounters when when moving over another.
Velocity: speed in a given direction.
Acceleration: change in the rate or speed of an object.
Projectile Motion (Horizontal Velocity): the rate of change of position (velocity) of an object moving horizontally.
Impact Forces: a high force applied over a short time period when two or more bodies collide.
Momentum: the quantity of motion of a moving body, measured by multiplying its mass and its velocity.
Rotational Forces: (torque) the tendency of a force to rotate an object around an axis, fulcrum, or pivot point.
Torque: (see Rotational Forces)
Friction: the resistance that an object or surface encounters when when moving over another.
Velocity: speed in a given direction.
Acceleration: change in the rate or speed of an object.
Projectile Motion (Horizontal Velocity): the rate of change of position (velocity) of an object moving horizontally.
Impact Forces: a high force applied over a short time period when two or more bodies collide.
Reflection
I really enjoyed this project, I mean it did exactly what it was meant to do: it broadened my understanding of the physics concepts we learned in this unit and deepened my understanding of the sport. I enjoyed learning filming styles and editing techniques, which I will definitely apply in the near future. And since we used lots of computers, cameras, and phones, I definitely expanded on my uses for this technology and, despite the fact I use all of these in day-to-day life, I learned a lot about how to use and manipulate these things to my advantage. I think our group, Natalie Mansergh and Nick Radcliffe and I, worked perfectly together. There was not one fight or quarrel, and we cooperated easily. All of us would play leader for a while, and had there been any spare work to pick up or something to get done all were eager to help. We could have, however, worked on time management a little more. Rather than planning out our days and working on a schedule, we'd frequently work the first period, about an hour, and slack off and do nothing in the second period. These little periods of time could have easily been used to edit work or script or film, but we neglected to use them to our advantage. That being said, the time we did work was used rather efficiently for the most part, and in the end we came up with a fantastic film that I am proud to present.
Most of the work I did focused on the script writing and the math of the project. It was challenging to put the lines down in a way that made it easy to understand and flow nicely together, as well as meeting the time limit. This project I really learned to discipline myself more and focus on just one task that needed to be done rather than running around and trying to juggle every element of the project at once. I ought to work more on time management, efficiency, and being on task and focused more.
Our group collaborated really well and I think that in the end, we created a product that we're really proud of and that we're really confident in. This project was great, it's very different from the Rube Goldberg machines while still lighting on some of the same concepts. It kind of shows how physics are included in everything, in the real world, in these little tiny actions. This was a fantastic project, and an overall success.
Most of the work I did focused on the script writing and the math of the project. It was challenging to put the lines down in a way that made it easy to understand and flow nicely together, as well as meeting the time limit. This project I really learned to discipline myself more and focus on just one task that needed to be done rather than running around and trying to juggle every element of the project at once. I ought to work more on time management, efficiency, and being on task and focused more.
Our group collaborated really well and I think that in the end, we created a product that we're really proud of and that we're really confident in. This project was great, it's very different from the Rube Goldberg machines while still lighting on some of the same concepts. It kind of shows how physics are included in everything, in the real world, in these little tiny actions. This was a fantastic project, and an overall success.