With the 2024 Summer Olympics kicking off in Paris this month, now is the time to watch world-class athletes achieve seemingly superhuman feats—and to appreciate the science behind it all! We've put together a collection of gold-winning learning resources to shed a light on the many scientific principles at play during every lap, throw, dive, and jump!
Running, jumping, climbing, digging—the human body's musculoskeletal system allows us to move in amazing ways. Running in particular is something that we're exceedingly good at, especially over long distances. We can run longer and farther than any other land mammal, save for one: the sled dog. Their incredibly efficient metabolism gives them an almost unlimited supply of energy and endurance. (Let's just be thankful we're not competing against them for gold!)
Our bipedal stance and large leg muscles also give us an advantage when it comes to jumping. In the Olympics, this ability is shown off particularly well in the high jump, which involves athletes jumping over increasingly higher bars. These days, high jumpers typically use a technique invented in 1968 called the "Fosbury flop." But what makes this technique so effective?
Skateboarding is a relative newcomer to the Olympic Games, having made its debut at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Full of dynamic movements like flips and kicks, skateboarding presents the perfect opportunity to learn about types of energy. In this interactive skateboarding simulation from PhET, explore kinetic energy, potential energy, and friction by experimenting with different skateboarders on different ramps.
A number of Olympic events involve throwing, shooting, or launching objects as far and as accurately as possible. How do athletes calculate, in a split-second, the trajectory and force needed to achieve that gold medal?
In two interactive simulations from CK-12, explore how an archer controls the path of their arrows and learn about the energy behind those arrows. Plus, in this video by MinutePhysics, find out which of the commonly thrown Olympic objects—the javelin, hammer, shot, and discus—produces the most energy output!
There's no shortage of water sports at the Summer Olympics, from high dives to rowing races. While the athletes are busy swimming laps, you can dive right into learning about the forces that influence a swimmer doing the butterfly stroke or the effects of gravity and air resistance on a diver's speed.
Got a rowing machine? Using this teaching guide from Tulsa Youth Rowing Association, try a fun experiment to investigate the connection between a rower's stroke rate and their power output.
For the first time, breakdancing ("breaking") will be performed on the Olympic stage, giving dancers from around the world the chance to bust a move.
Of course, athletes aren't the only ones who like to dance. Thanks to how our brains are wired, humans are naturally tuned to dance, which is why music can give us goosebumps and make us feel emotions so strongly. So, when those breakdancers are out there giving it their all, don't resist the urge to get up and get down along with them!
Admittedly, not all of us are big sports fans. If hearing about the Olympics over the next few weeks starts to make you feel like a bit of a couch potato, don't worry—being "lazy" just might be in our nature, too!
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