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Science of the Olympic Winter Games

Science of the Olympic Winter Games

Launch Tool

These videos, created by NBC in partnership with the National Science Foundation, feature interviews with athletes and coaches who explain the physics, biology, chemistry, and materials engineering behind the Olympic Winter Games. The science is broken down by capturing the athletes' movements with a state-of-the-art, high-speed camera called the Phantom Cam, which has the ability to capture movement at rates of up to 1500 frames per second. This allows frame-by-frame illustrations of Newton's Three Laws of Motion, the Law of Conservation of Angular Momentum, friction, drag, speed, velocity, and other scientific concepts. The transcripts are viewable by clicking on the tab on the left side of the video viewer. The videos average about four minutes in length and feature the athletes involved in the individual sports as well as interviews with scientists who explain some of the scientific concepts involved in the sports. The sixteen titles in the series are:

  • The Science of Skis
  • Figure Out Figure Skating
  • Safety Gear
  • Slapshot Physics: Hockey
  • Aerial Physics: Aerial Skiing
  • The Science of Snowboarding
  • Olympic Motion
  • The Internal Athlete: Cross-Country Skiing
  • Blade Runners: Short Track Speed Skating
  • Banking on Speed: Bobsled
  • Mathletes
  • Air Lift: Ski Jump
  • The Science of Skates
  • Competition Suits
  • Downhill Science: Alpine Skiing
  • Science Friction: Curling

For Educators

The videos can be used to connect the Winter Olympic sports to concepts currently being studied in the classroom. You can have the class view the videos prior to the competitions and then have students apply what they learned to the results of the events. Students also can research previous Olympics and answer the question of how technology has affected sports over the years.

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