As a mechanical engineer, I was puzzling over how Ms. Biles could leap so high so thank you for quantifying this, Rhett. (You are a youtube treasure, in my opinion.) As my family and I watched the gymnastics competitions and the 12' numbers were being shown, I was wondering if the gymnasts somehow benefit from the springiness of the floor. Then again, as the other respondent thus far has noted, high jumpers slightly exceed the vertical leap of the gymnasts without any possible floor springiness. Any thoughts?
In high jump you have to move your centre of mass over the bar (as well as the rest of your body), so from that point of view the idea she jumped 3.5 metres high is ridiculous. The women's world record in high jump is 2.10 m and the record holder's height is 1.80 m. Assuming her centre of mass is at 0.9 m, she would have jumped 1.2 m. So the 2.6 m at 1.4 m (0.7 m CoM height making it a 1.9 m jump) is impressive but without a doubt supported by the floor.
As a mechanical engineer, I was puzzling over how Ms. Biles could leap so high so thank you for quantifying this, Rhett. (You are a youtube treasure, in my opinion.) As my family and I watched the gymnastics competitions and the 12' numbers were being shown, I was wondering if the gymnasts somehow benefit from the springiness of the floor. Then again, as the other respondent thus far has noted, high jumpers slightly exceed the vertical leap of the gymnasts without any possible floor springiness. Any thoughts?
In high jump you have to move your centre of mass over the bar (as well as the rest of your body), so from that point of view the idea she jumped 3.5 metres high is ridiculous. The women's world record in high jump is 2.10 m and the record holder's height is 1.80 m. Assuming her centre of mass is at 0.9 m, she would have jumped 1.2 m.
So the 2.6 m at 1.4 m (0.7 m CoM height making it a 1.9 m jump) is impressive but without a doubt supported by the floor.