Usain bolt is, in fact, the fastest sprinter of all time. Many have looked into his running speeds and how they relate to physiology. But the article I chose focused on the mathematics. These articles covered topics such as Usain’s peak and lowest speeds, how to improve them, and the math behind it. All these factors together explain Usain’s top speeds as well as how he can increase it without additional effort.
John D. Barrow is a mathematician that discovered how to speed up the process of things by simply changing one thing. These things were revealed by a significance experiment. The first is Usains reaction speed. Bolt’s slow reaction time was discovered by Barrow. He can reduce his record by.10 seconds, which is 9.53 seconds shorter than his original record of 9.58 seconds. He also found that weather conditions and wind speed were the second factors. To get down to 9.48 seconds, Usain would need to have the tailwind at 2 miles an hour. He also discovered that altitude is another factor. Altitude can reduce air density. Speed increases when you run at higher altitudes. Over 1000m above the sea level is not permitted for races. Usain would run at 1000m, which would reduce his time by.03 seconds. This would give him a record 9.45 seconds. Another article was more focused on Usain’s peak speed. This was discovered by Wayne Getz and Sebastian Schreiber. They calculated the difference between the speeds attained by the three mathematicians. His fastest speeds ranged from 50 to 80 meters. They discovered that his maximum speed was 28.45 MPH. The graph also revealed that he was at his slowest during the last 2 seconds, roughly 20 meters. This could be explained by his long distance ahead of his competition.
This article was more interesting than the original. The article also gave Usains speed breakdown in increments of 10 metres. The fastest speeds they could find were between 50 to 80 meters per inch. Each ten meter was covered in just.82 seconds. He ran the last 10 meters at 11.1 m/s, which is 4 miles per hour slower. They graphed every 10 meters using a linegraph which produced a circular curve. The slope was lowest at the beginning of the graph, which corresponded to his acceleration. The slope starts to climb after he reaches his maximum speed. The graph showed the speed at which he was peaking. The data was not consistent so they could not pinpoint the speed. Speed requires two points. The data they didn’t have for speed and distance between points was not available.
Math was first recorded in 450 B.C. primarily focused on the laws and mathematics of movement. 2000 years later the founders differential calculus solved the equations for instantaneous Speed. This meant that instantaneous speed was defined as a limit. Specifically, the limit to average speeds taken over shorter intervals. If they made the time segments smaller they were able to calculate specific speeds for each interval of 20 seconds. For example, 20 seconds would have an average speed. This issue was not only related to speed but also distances. The only information they had was the time per 10 meters. They had to make educated guesses about the speeds between. Interpolation was used for this purpose. Interpolation allows you to draw smooth curves around data. This allowed them to uncover some of their data’s hidden secrets. The curves revealed the fastest Usain Bolt ran during the race. Usain bolt ran at 27.5 miles per an hour during his race. After the peak, he began to drop to 22.6 mph. He could’ve run faster if he hadn’t slowed down at the end. They had laser guns that could capture Usain’s speed 100 times per second the next time he ran.
They also measured his average speed and instantaneous speed. Figure 4 shows two sets – a wave and a straight line. The solid line shows his average speed. The waves show his instantaneous speed. His body’s natural slowing down of his feet planted, and speeding up when he pushes his feet off the ground creates a wide range in his instantaneous speed.
These studies and articles have shown that speed calculations are not as easy as we thought. It looks like it would be relatively easy to determine the speed of maximum and minimum speeds. I would not have thought so many math would be involved in figuring his speeds per second. Analyzing things gets more complex the closer you get to them, even if it’s as simple as running speed.
