High Jumpers Preferred Landing Spot?

Most recent answer: 12/28/2011

Q:
Why a person doing high jump refers to land on sand or plastic form instead on the ground..`Explain
- Aysha (age 15)
Tanzania
A:
Hello Aysha, welcome to our website,

It's a matter of acceleration, or deceleration in the case of a high jumper.  The internal forces on a body are proportional to the deceleration rate.  In the case of solid ground, sand is not much better, the sudden stop can cause internal injuries to the body.   In the case of plastic foam, the deceleration is much less since the foam can compress a bit and reduce the deceleration rate.

LeeH

(published on 12/28/2011)