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5
votes
1answer
70 views
In tennis, why does topspin serve bounce higher than flat serve?
When receiving servers (while playing tennis), I've noticed that the tennis ball seems to bounce up higher on me when the server uses a topspin serve than when the server hits a flat serve. Why is ...
38
votes
9answers
3k views
What makes running so much less energy-efficient than bicycling?
Most people can ride 10 km on their bike. However, running 10 km is a lot harder to do. Why?
According to the law of conservation of energy, bicycling should be more intensive because you have to ...
7
votes
3answers
467 views
Why is ski jumping not suicidal?
At least on television, ski jumpers seem to fall great vertical distances before they hit the ground - at least a few dozen meters, though I couldn't find exact distances via a quick search. And yet ...
6
votes
3answers
671 views
“Relativistic Baseball”
On Randall Munroe’s new blog “what if”, he answers the question:
“What would happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light?”
http://what-if.xkcd.com/1/
He concludes:
...
2
votes
1answer
735 views
How many Gs would a driver of the Bugatti Veyron experience on the Ehra-Lessien track when cornering before record attempt?
Apologies if too specific.
Watched a documentary National Geographic Megafactories Bugatti Veyron
I told an colleague (engineer) about the need to warm the car up and then unleash it on the long ...
6
votes
3answers
1k views
Physics of a skateboard ollie
Does anyone have a good explanation of the physics and vectors of force involved in the skateboarding trick the ollie (where the skater jumps and causes the skateboard to rise off the ground with ...
13
votes
2answers
3k views
Ice skating, how does it really work?
Okay, some textbooks I came across, and a homework assignment I had to do several years ago, suggested that the reason we can skate on ice is the peculiar $p(T)$-curve of the ice-water boundary. The ...
