The physics of climbing & falling

[sidis]

hey i am doing a project on physics of climbing for my high school physics class, so any info you have would be greatly appreciated

ps sorry if this seems a bit bossy its my first time on this forum.

I'd be glad to help. Are you a climber? There's a lot to think about in analyzing climbing...is there anything you are especially interested in? How mathematically intense do you want to go?

 

[stewartcs]

hey i am doing a project on physics of climbing for my high school physics class, so any info you have would be greatly appreciated

ps sorry if this seems a bit bossy its my first time on this forum.

The rest of these threads would be a good place to start.

CS

 

[mitchellz8]

I am a climber and I have read this thread, not necesarily understood it all but I am going to ask my teacher to explain what he can to me.

And in response to sidis I am in Ap calc 1/2 now and am in my first year of physics so not to terribly deep mathmaticaly but i have a good base understanding and my teachers can help if i don't understand. One thing i was interested in was the fristion vs. muscle element of each type of grip (crip, sloper, jug, pinch) and such things. One thing that i could not find was the coefficient of friction of a climbers hands on either rock or plastic holds, i found some info on rubber soles of shoes but nothin of hands.

 

[sidis]

Phil Watts of Northern Michigan University (I'm not sure he's still there (we only climbed together once)(he wrote this book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0873228146/?tag=pfamazon01-20)) did some work on friction of hands, etc in climbing. It would be easy to set up your own experiment with a hold--natural, or plastic--a scale, and a climber (victim?) to see how much force it takes to pull the hold from their fingers. Try it with and without chalk. Try different kinds of grips.

This should be useful: http://www.trainingforclimbing.com/new/research.shtml

Let me know what else I can do to help. Lots of climbers are mathematicians, physicists, engineers, and the like--where my wife and I are currently climbing regulars (Red River Gorge, KY) sometimes it seems more like a science convention than a rad climbing area. *grin*.

Where do you climb?

 

[mitchellz8]

I am a marylander and I don't get chances to climb outside so I am bound to Earthtreks. But this summer me and my friend where going to take a trip somewhere for a week to climb.