preview

How Does The Skater 's Free Leg Affects The Amplitude, And Period Of A Cosine Function

Better Essays

These equations were derived from using d ⃗_y, the axis of symmetry, and a point on the parabola. It is necessary to have a known point on the parabola to determine the stretch of the parabola, defined as s. In the equations above let u define a point in vertical direction and h define a point in the horizontal direction. The point used in order to calculate the equation of the parabola that models the behaviour of a waltz jump was (1.61, 0). This point is used as 1.61m is where the skater lands on the ice, which is where the parabola model ends, and the ice is the horizontal plane defined as zero. Below h is defined as the horizontal distance, and u is the vertical distance. The math of figure skating spins:
A spin depicts circular motion. I wanted to investigate how the skater’s free leg affects the amplitude, and period of a cosine function. To analyze this I chose to video a figure skater doing a spin from a birds eye view, this way the points could be tracked all the way around the circle. If the video was taken facing the skater, many of the points on the cosine curve would be ‘hidden’ by the skater’s body. In figure 8, 9, and 10 show the different spins I chose to analyze.
Figure 8: Sit Spin Figure 9: Broken Leg Spin

Figure 10: Cross Foot On the figure above, the amplitudes are shown in a black line across the body. These were defined as the skaters’ amplitudes, because when measuring the amplitude of a circular motion object you measure from the

Get Access