How to calculate jump height from the force and a person's weight

[Thecurious1]

If you want to see the video just search dwight howard sport science

 

[256bits]

Hi @Thecurious1
Welcome.
It would be most courteous if you would provide a link to your inquiry, rather than have others spend their valuable time look and search for a video to peruse if they so desire if they ever do happen to fall upon the video in question.

Having said that, and not looking for a video, I can only say that the applicable description of what Dwight is doing when jumping is that he is not providing a continuous force of 1210 pounds while extending his legs from a crouch to the launch into the air. So the formula F=ma is non-applicable, and along with a supposed constant calculated acceleration, the SUVAT equations become also non-applicable

Perhaps they mean peak force of 1210 pounds, from F-t graph of data points.

 

[PeroK]

Summary:: So i was watching ESPN sport science where they calculated the force production of nba player Dwight Howard. Dwight weight is 280lbs and he produce 1210lbs of force launching himself more than 30 inches off the ground. Now this got me thinking about another player Rudy Gobert. Rudy has a 5 inches higher standing reach than dwight and only weighed in at 238lbs. Now i wonder therotically how high would Rudy be able to jump if he produce 1210lbs of force aswell?

If you want to see the video just search dwight howard sport science

The important quantity for jumping is impulse, which is force multiplied by time. You could record the maximum force, which may be what ESPN has done. But as mentioned above, without some profile of the force over time the maximum force itself cannot be used to calculate height.

 

[sophiecentaur]

The important quantity for jumping is impulse, which is force multiplied by time.

That is certainly one way of doing it. The Energy based calculation is just as valid and equates the Integrated Force times distance to give the Energy input to the jumper which gives the increase in Gravitational Potential Energy (i.e. max height). An advantage of this approach is that it needs no measurement of time - just the geometry of the athlete.

 

[PeroK]

That is certainly one way of doing it. The Energy based calculation is just as valid and equates the Integrated Force times distance to give the Energy input to the jumper which gives the increase in Gravitational Potential Energy (i.e. max height). An advantage of this approach is that it needs no measurement of time - just the geometry of the athlete.

I'm not sure the winner of a high jump competition is determined by geometry alone. Although geometry does play a key part in the Fosbury Flop!

 

[sophiecentaur]

Winner and loser are both determined by factors including geometry and you can measure them both. Although you still need to know the force at each height so it isn't a free lunch.