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During the event vault, you run as fas as you can and hurdle onto a spring board and up onto a vaulting table. You want to hit the board as fast as you can in order to get as much height as possible. There are all types of spring bords with different types of springs, depending on the level. Some spring boards are very bouncy and have multiple springs in them, while others have very stiff springs that you can change the amount of springs in them. Also the floors have springs underneath them, these are calling spring floors, they dont help much for the inital tumble but they help lessen the impact on the gymnasts' joints. Tumbling on a spring floor is very differernt than tumbling on grass, you also get more of a rebound when tumbling on a spring floor which can help in connecting skills. A proper spring floor is built in waves, so the gymnast lands closest to the springs, when a spring floor is old or weak it develops dead spots and breaks the tumbling pattern and can ruin the pass.

I was thinking about earth. Mother earth. MASSIVE mother earth. If you're planning to leave earth at some point, good luck! Because to leave earth you'd need enough contained energy to send you off with a velocity of 11.2 Km/s, Or 11200 m/s. In concept, fairly simple. But in reality, not so much. Unless that is... You had a MASSIVE SPRING. And i mean a spring that is unfathomably large. Lets do some math. Our end goal is to attain 11200 m/s using a spring. The amount of energy you would need to attain this speed can be represented by the equation, Energy= (1/2)mv^2 Or with numbers, E=((70 Kg)(11200 m/s)^2)/2 This comes out to be about 4390400000 J. We can now use that in the equation to find the potential energy of a spring, which is E=(1/2)kx^2 Or after some math, 8780800000=kx^2 For this model, lets say we compress the spring 1 meter. In this case, the spring constant (k) of this spring would be 8780800000 N/m Now, all this is cool, but it's extremely unfeasable. At this speed, an unprotected human body would be very likely to spontainously combust due to an incredible amount of friction from the air (Drag). The Molecules on the outside of the body would rapidly heat up and almost instantly ignite, as shown in the picture at the top of this blog. In conclusion, dont try to leave the earth. With love, your friend, -Shabba

Everyone likes trampolines. But how do they even work? It's all about energy, and at the same time, proves Newton's laws of motion. Potential energy (PE) and kinetic energy (KE) are the reason trampolines allow you to jump higher than you can on flat ground. One type of potential energy that is involved with trampolines is the potential energy stored in springs. Another type of energy is gravitational potential energy. There is also kinetic energy because you are moving. The equation that connects potential and kinetic energy to find total energy (E) is: E=PE+KE+Q The total energy of the person jumping on a trampoline equals all of the potential energy (both the spring and gravitational potential), plus the kinetic energy. Q is internal energy, which isn't really important here. Other equations needed to understand the forces and energy of trampolines are: PE=mgh This used to find the potential energy due to gravity. You multiply the mass of the object (or person in this case), by the height they are from the ground, by g, acceleration due to gravity. Which is always 9.81 m/s^2. People with larger masses have a greater potential energy due to gravity if they are at the same height as someone with a smaller mass. However, it is harder for people with larger masses to reach the same heights as people with small masses, because gravity is pulling them down more. PE=(1/2)kx^2 The potential energy stored in a spring: "x" is how much the spring stretches, and "k" is the spring constant. Hooke's law goes along with this: F=kx. The force of the spring is the constant multiplied by the change in the spring length. This demonstrates Newton's third law; every action has an equal and opposite reaction. When the springs are stretched by the person, they have to compress again, making the person jump higher as the trampoline returns to its original position. Because of gravity, larger masses allow the spring to be stretched out more. This can be shown by the equation F=ma, which is Newton's second law of motion. "F" is the force of gravity, "m" is mass, and "a" here is also g, acceleration due to gravity. So when mass increases, so does the force of gravity. This means the object/person is being pulled down harder by gravity. This stretches the springs of the trampoline more, creating a higher spring potential energy. But the mass is usually too heavy for the spring to move you if you just stand there, which is why you don't move unless you start jumping first. Smaller kids usually jump higher than adults, even though they have a lower potential energy due to gravity, because the trampoline can more easily spring them back up, since they are being pulled down by gravity slightly less. This is all a great example of Newton's first law: objects in motion will keep moving, and objects at rest will not move, until acted upon by an outside force. The outside forces that keep you on the trampoline are both gravity, which keeps you down, and the trampoline itself, which keeps you up. You also wont move until you begin jumping. Pushing your feet down makes you go up. (Newton's third law!)