Introduction This winter 110 luge athletes -- "sliders" -- will compete for medals on the steep, winding luge course of the Nagano Olympics. This unique track, called "The Spiral" even contains two uphill sections, a first for this Olympic event. To finish well here, sliders must have a thorough understanding of basic physics. In fact, knowing some physics can help us as spectators, too.

To understand how a luge travels down a course, we need to be able to describe motion precisely. The study of motion is the branch of physics called kinematics. In kinematics, we will learn how to describe the motion of the luge by looking at the quantities displacement, velocity and acceleration.

Objectives

The objective of this unit is to develop an understanding of the basic concepts and terms of kinematics, and of the mathematical relationships between them. As a result of completing the activities of this unit, the learner will be able to:

• Describe what is meant by the displacement, velocity and acceleration, including how these quantities are related to one another.
• Use software and images to measure displacement, velocities and acceleration for a luge traveling down a track.
• Understand the use of vectors to describe displacement, velocity and acceleration in two and three dimensional motion.

© April, 1998, Montana State University-Bozeman