[NAEP] Faster, higher, stronger - more math and science?

[Dawn Wiseman]

So there we are on Saturday afternoon, two Olympic junkies, watching 
Armin Zoeggler of Italy fly down the luge track on his back at 130+ km 
an hour. "Wow," he says, "That's as fast as we drive in our car with its 
148HP engine up the Laurentian autoroute to go skiing every Sunday." 
(Yes, the limit /IS/ 100km/hr).

Then we watched Jennifer Heil win gold in moguls (yay!), but I'm 
listening to the commentators talk about her speed and how she has to 
know just how fast she is going into each jump in order to be safe. Also 
how moguls skiers are supposed to come out of the jump at precisely the 
right point so they just slip neatly back into their ski line again. 
And, to a loud groan in the room I say, "They have to hit the tangent to 
their curve."

And, if you saw Shaun White of the US win gold in in the half-pipe, how 
could you not see and hear the math and science of his sport? It's all 
about 1080s, 900s and 720s. How much momentum does a 70kg man need to 
propel himself 6 or 7m into the air anyway? And do snow conditions make 
any difference?

All that to say, that there is TONS of - maybe not everyday, but 
certainly exciting - math and science available at our fingers tips for 
the next 2 weeks from the achievements of the athletes themselves, to 
the engineering of their equipment, the materials of their uniforms, the 
design of the venues and the complexity of some of the judging systems. 
Here are a few links that may help you explore the Olympics with your 
students.

The Why Files
http://whyfiles.org/019olympic/

MSNBC
Olympic teams place bets on latest science
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11202899/

Montana State University - Winter Olympics, Sports and Science
http://btc.montana.edu/olympics/

CBC
http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/

CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2006/winter.olympics/

Sports Illustrated
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/2006/