I was watching the men ski jump–and FLY!–the other night and got to wondering. There must be rules about how big a suit they can wear: they all wear loose clothes instead of tight stuff like the downhill, etc., folks, but nothing baggy. Obviously if I could wear a suit 10 times too big and grab the sides of it I could sail darned near forever. It appears that the size/weight ratio is darned tight to compete at the Olympic level, since everyone I saw was between 5’ 8" and 6’ and about 140 pounds. That’s pretty skinny.
So, my questions:
If someone were bulkier, would the extra leg strength at liftoff compensate for the additional weight in the air?
Has anyone calculated the wind resistance vs. body weight vs. ski area (for lift) for the people who do this crazy sport?
[QUOTE=NoCoolUserName]
Obviously if I could wear a suit 10 times too big and grab the sides of it I could sail darned near forever. QUOTE]
I’m not sure that’d work how you think. (1st year aero eng student, but does’t mean much yet!)
Watching the ski jump the other day, I realised it’s more about moving forwards very very quickly and gaining as much forward motion as possible.
If you could have a suit with wings, or with a jet pack then yes obviously this will stop you from hitting the ground as soon, and will make you go further.
A suit like you describe, though, will have the opposite to the desired effect. It’d just slow you down and make you lose all your momentum as soon as you opened it up, resulting in an embarrassing distance.
If you were being towed on a rope (ie; a constant force, think about the guys with parachutes towed by boats at the beach), then of course you’d go further.
Just think about throwing a rock, and then throwing a rock with a big sheet of polythene on the tail end, catching the wind. You know which’ll go further.
No, in this case a ski jumper generates lift from flying through the air like an inclined plane. That forces air downwards, and by action reaction forces the jumper up. Unfortunately, flying this way causes tremendous drag on the jumper and slows him down. Eventually, he has no forward movement, deflects no air downwards, and stops flying. The best suit for a person to wear is one that would turn him into an airfoil. Airfoils generate lift like inclined planes, but they do so with much less drag. I don’t know if its pratical, or possible to construct a suit that would be an efficient airfoil, but theoretically thats the best shot.
Probably not, bulkier legs don’t necessarily mean high jumping. Look at Nate Robinson, he probably has the highest vertical leap in the NBA, but his legs aren’t especially thick.
No, and its really not possible to do so. You would have to stick someone, or a model, in an air tunnel to determine that stuff.
Now that I think of this more, I think I misinterpreted. Did you mean wearing something that basically turns a person into a giant hang glider? If so, that would probably work pretty well in terms of efficient lift, but I don’t know if a persons arms could support it.
