| dc.description.abstract | Alpine skiing is a complex and demanding sport that necessitates a combination of physical and mental skills, including balance, coordination, strength, and agility. With races lasting more than a minute and competitors separated by mere fractions of a second, body mass may significantly impact final race times.
In this work, we investigated the impact of skiers' mass differences on finishing times in Alpine skiing. To this end, we have developed a mathematical model and a computer program that utilizes Newton's Second Law of Motion to calculate the finish time, considering the frictional force between the skis and the snow, the slope of the hill, and the drag force caused by air resistance. A Python program was implemented to compute race time for the different body mass while keeping other parameter values fixed (slope of the hill, temperature, force of friction, etc.).
The findings in our case study suggests that the increase of body mass (e.g., 3-4 kg) may improve race time by more than 0.01 seconds. This may be the difference between winning and losing a race, meaning that even a modest increase of the body mass may have significant impact on race time. | |