engleski

Influence of body mass on performance in downhill skiing

A physical model of downhill skiing has been constructed with the aim of determining the influence of a skier’ s body mass on performance. The present article investigates the relationship between the skier's body mass and the shortest time needed for a downhill skier to complete the distance. The accuracy of the physical model used in the study is essentially determined by the accuracy of the input parameters, but their errors do not noticeably affect the reliability of this comparative simulation study. The computer simulations show that the total time needed to complete the whole distance decreases as the skier's body mass increases. Slightly better total times have been simulated for higher skier's body masses. When a skier’ s body mass is 80 kg instead of 75 kg, the total time is about 0.4 % shorter, i.e. approximately 0.6 s for the profile used in these simulations. The only factor that is causing this is the drag force influeancing the skier, which has more effect on skiers with lower body masses.

downhill skiing; physical model; body mass; performance; computer simulation

nije evidentirano