Entertainment

The Physics Behind Gymnastics, Explained (Vaults, Tumbles and Flips) | WIRED

Emily Kuhn, a former gymnast and current physics PhD student at Yale University, explains all the math behind the amazing flips and turns we see during the Olympic gymnastics competitions. Emily explains why “The Biles” tumbling routine is so difficult as well as the types of forces acting on these gymnasts every time they use…

Published

on

Emily Kuhn, a former gymnast and current physics PhD student at Yale University, explains all the math behind the amazing flips and turns we see during the Olympic gymnastics competitions. Emily explains why “The Biles” tumbling routine is so difficult as well as the types of forces acting on these gymnasts every time they use the uneven bars.

Still haven’t subscribed to WIRED on YouTube? ►►
Listen to the Get WIRED podcast ►►
Want more WIRED? Get the magazine ►►

Also, check out the free WIRED channel on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV. Here you can find your favorite WIRED shows and new episodes of our latest hit series Tradecraft.

ABOUT WIRED
WIRED is where tomorrow is realized.

The Physics Behind Gymnastics, Explained (Vaults, Tumbles and Flips) | WIRED

104 Comments

  1. NDN AF

    July 22, 2021 at 6:20 pm

    All I know about physics and gravity is that it constantly works against me.

  2. G.

    July 22, 2021 at 6:29 pm

    THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO

  3. oğuz Samsa

    July 22, 2021 at 6:42 pm

    man… i wish we could replace football with gymnastics.

  4. Sharon Wong

    July 22, 2021 at 7:18 pm

    This is so ironic because I was literally just watching some gymnastic clips and then this pops up in my sub feed 😂

  5. Denis Kangethe

    July 22, 2021 at 7:18 pm

    She is a genius

  6. PopAdjCassie

    July 22, 2021 at 7:27 pm

    My 🧠 🤯

  7. Air Quotes

    July 22, 2021 at 7:39 pm

    Nice try Wired but you can’t make math fun

  8. Andrew

    July 22, 2021 at 7:52 pm

    @8:44 “This is the D we are going to be taking” hahaha 😆

  9. Jared Moleski

    July 22, 2021 at 8:03 pm

    Me sitting here nodding my head in agreement like I have any clue what she’s talking about…

  10. Whereisthetequila

    July 22, 2021 at 8:12 pm

    I have no idea what she’s saying but I’m living for it 🙆🏻‍♂️

  11. Myxomatosis

    July 22, 2021 at 8:21 pm

    Da-yum! … numbers. ouchies. *Do MORE of this PLEASE??*

  12. Madz Redfox

    July 22, 2021 at 8:52 pm

    as a physics student, I’m actually surprised that I never got a scenario or problem relating to gymnastics. This was really interesting!

  13. Skadood Skadad

    July 22, 2021 at 9:11 pm

    Neat

  14. ItsABriMoment

    July 22, 2021 at 9:20 pm

    I enjoyed pretending that I understood this.

  15. Arty :p

    July 22, 2021 at 9:49 pm

    Do one on skateboarding.

  16. Samantha Holz

    July 22, 2021 at 10:45 pm

    It amazes me, hearing these number – like how many G’s they’re experiencing in self propelled maneuvers – that Russians never flagged gymnasts for space programs.

  17. The Hint

    July 22, 2021 at 10:51 pm

    I always wonder if a gymnast could go higher than a high jumper?

  18. Meghan Sullivan

    July 22, 2021 at 11:41 pm

    This is so fkn sick

  19. Cecily S

    July 23, 2021 at 12:10 am

    I’m a xcel silver/level 4 gymnast and I don’t understand how we do it. Like we just throw ourselves in the air and hope we land. I don’t think about the physics

    • euwpredator

      July 23, 2021 at 12:30 pm

      You are using your muscle memory to do it with *feels*
      And you get it by *practice makes perfect*

  20. seb rozo

    July 23, 2021 at 12:20 am

    How scientist choose a romantic partner 8:45

  21. SteVeL

    July 23, 2021 at 12:29 am

    I wasn’t expecting to watch equations solved in real time. Call me a pessimist but it felt like the main reason for doing so was to pad the length of the video.

  22. Tommie Berry Jr.

    July 23, 2021 at 12:34 am

    When I saw this initially I instantly thought “Bonny McMurry”

  23. Kevin Sam

    July 23, 2021 at 12:36 am

    Im a business student, and i always sucked at physics, but i was so entertained to learn about how much physics goes into these skills.

  24. LetYourLiteShine17

    July 23, 2021 at 1:04 am

    Yay Emily!!!! IB Physics to Wired 🙂

  25. josh johnson

    July 23, 2021 at 1:17 am

    If you like this channel you should try Top5’s & AccessAstronomy & WarsofTheWorld

  26. Silvestre

    July 23, 2021 at 1:30 am

    Nice

  27. Nomon Munir

    July 23, 2021 at 1:48 am

    I feel nerded out

  28. Kennethpkfr

    July 23, 2021 at 3:02 am

    yo thanks wray

  29. Sandeep Manne

    July 23, 2021 at 5:58 am

    High school jee mains problem

  30. RonC

    July 23, 2021 at 8:11 am

    Noone asked, noone needed, just using your knowledge for unnecessary thing 😑

  31. kulik03

    July 23, 2021 at 10:49 am

    She lost me when she started doing math! Cool video nonetheless!

  32. minichiggz

    July 23, 2021 at 10:52 am

    Centrifugal force is a fictions force and shouldn’t be accounted for in your calculation.

  33. livestrong296

    July 23, 2021 at 10:57 am

    00:18 is this a joke? She said in her past life she was a gymnast, is wired promoting pseudo science as well now.

    • Stephen Tollafield

      July 23, 2021 at 4:55 pm

      It’s an expression, as in, she was a gymnast before doing what she does now.

    • tyler west

      July 24, 2021 at 5:10 am

      It’s not pseudoscience, she’s much more brilliant and qualified than you @livestrong296

    • livestrong296

      July 24, 2021 at 7:00 am

      @tyler west did you even read my question before getting personal with me dear stranger 😂. I asked whether wired is promoting pseudo science as she referred past life. Read carefully dear stranger, before going beserk on YouTube

  34. Sufox

    July 23, 2021 at 11:27 am

    Yay, Emily!!

  35. Tamir Mickens

    July 23, 2021 at 1:29 pm

    Love it! Centrifugal force is just…inertia though.

  36. #save_cameron_heern_pardoncameron

    July 23, 2021 at 2:08 pm

    Cameron Hearn was sentenced to 24 years in prison in an accident. Where is justice and humanity in all of this? He will be out at the age of forty-five. He will be broken, desperate and depressed. Please reduce the penalty#Cameron herren

  37. Vázquez Romero Diego Enrique

    July 23, 2021 at 5:58 pm

    Una vez me estrelle en una pared balanceandome en barras, creo que hasta escupi un diente

  38. Wesley Akiti

    July 23, 2021 at 6:04 pm

    *0:08** best transition*

  39. Marge Bunn

    July 23, 2021 at 8:25 pm

    No more math omfg

  40. Shannon Cheshire

    July 23, 2021 at 11:04 pm

    Wait….what?

  41. MiVidaBellisima

    July 24, 2021 at 12:41 am

    I clicked on this video feeling pretty smart. I am now humbled.

  42. Helena Nadine

    July 24, 2021 at 5:14 am

    I enjoyed this so much !

  43. SARC03

    July 24, 2021 at 10:18 am

    Omg those are exactly the numbers I got for her centripetal acceleration. Wow. 🤭😅

  44. antzpantz

    July 24, 2021 at 10:31 am

    I’m just surprised that this American PhD student is actually using metric units! 😂😂😂

  45. Chitraansh Popli.

    July 24, 2021 at 10:52 am

    Did any one else notice how much the host moves her head!?

  46. txtchr1

    July 24, 2021 at 1:30 pm

    Great info

    • repliêd by WIRED

      July 24, 2021 at 2:40 pm

      Appreciate your feedback! And thanks for watching for more info.
      Textme@
      +1 (762) 250-7643

  47. Lloyd Arsen Balbas

    July 24, 2021 at 3:02 pm

    Science is a fun subject by itself. The problem usually lies in how it is communicated. If the teacher inundates the students with equations without relating how it is applied in the real world, the lesson tends to get lost and you have a room full of disinterested people asking “why do I need to learn y=mx + b? How will it help me pay my bills?”

    • cello4Jesus

      July 25, 2021 at 10:17 pm

      You are so correct! I

  48. Vermilion

    July 24, 2021 at 4:56 pm

    Wait.. so you’re telling me that the physics I learned in school can actually be applied to real life?

  49. Avanti B

    July 24, 2021 at 7:00 pm

    Bro for me I just put it in my mind to do a double twist and it happens idk

  50. Spongebob Squarenails

    July 24, 2021 at 7:00 pm

    Bro for me I just put it in my mind to do a double twist and it happens idk

  51. Fake depressed 15 year old

    July 24, 2021 at 7:37 pm

    Me, who has only learned about physics for 2 semesters in 2 years of highschool trying to understand this
    🥲

  52. Joel Hayes

    July 24, 2021 at 9:28 pm

    If there wasn’t so much of a demand for CS, I would most-definitely be a physics major.

  53. Chimere

    July 24, 2021 at 11:56 pm

    Okay now I want the physics of skateboarding

  54. Santiago Gryphon

    July 25, 2021 at 1:05 am

    Meh…

  55. Kensley

    July 25, 2021 at 1:35 am

    Wait isn’t velocity measured by displacement instead of distance? Otherwise it would be speed

    • Pandemic Physics with Andrea

      July 26, 2021 at 8:36 pm

      You’re right! Sometimes we use both words synonymously, but the correct way to calculate the centripetal acceleration is using speed, so distance over time. Good catch!

  56. Alfredo Pasta

    July 25, 2021 at 4:00 am

    Math class……never was good

  57. Aisyah Tsany

    July 25, 2021 at 5:55 am

    danggg! she uses 9,81 m/s² for earth gravity
    as you know, most students hate that number. we prefer 10 m/s²😂

    • Paul Kerton

      July 27, 2021 at 12:44 am

      9.81 m/s² is what most countries always use. Don’t know anywhere that rounds it to 10!

    • Aisyah Tsany

      July 27, 2021 at 12:50 am

      @Paul Kerton oh really? i just found it out. in Indonesia we use both 9,81 and 10 m/s², most students like using 10 because we calculate manually 😂

  58. 6th Wilbury

    July 25, 2021 at 6:07 am

    Some of the time estimations could be more closely approximated by counting the number of frames vs. the frame rate of the video.

  59. CLM

    July 25, 2021 at 6:10 am

    Would have been better if the calcs could be seen. Ditch the pink pen.

  60. Panch

    July 25, 2021 at 8:08 am

    Mario could do just as good if not better

  61. Damion Campbell

    July 25, 2021 at 2:31 pm

    I wish they had used a better a colour marker and or graphics over these sections I could better see the equations albeit I still wouldn’t understand them. But at least I could try

  62. Sumit Kumar

    July 25, 2021 at 8:22 pm

    Mam plz use a dark colors 🙏

  63. cello4Jesus

    July 25, 2021 at 10:20 pm

    I’ve been itching to use gymnastics in my science lectures, so I thoroughly enjoyed this video.

  64. Taw Mathews

    July 26, 2021 at 2:59 am

    Excellent!

  65. Jose Macasero

    July 26, 2021 at 3:21 am

    How is she doing all those math without a calculator?

  66. afrah 99

    July 26, 2021 at 5:04 am

    احس صدعت

  67. Lumiere Saint-Claire

    July 26, 2021 at 6:32 am

    I love bio mechanics so much . Makes me even more thrilled that someone is applying these formulas to a sport I coach and used to be apart of.

  68. Asher Wade

    July 26, 2021 at 7:58 am

    Is this video purposely to confuse viewers, or just to impress viewers that you’re a PhD student at Yale, for even mathematical physicists admit that to truly communicate clearly any {in this case, obtuse intricate dynamic} aspect of physics, one ‘lεαvεs oυt’ αll mαthεmαticαl formυlαs.’ 0therωisε a “very” interesting presentation. 👍

    • Jun Yan Yap

      July 30, 2021 at 9:28 pm

      You must be joking, because no sane physicist would tell you that to express something unambiguously in physics, you leave out the math

  69. Ishita Saxena

    July 26, 2021 at 5:03 pm

    what does this mean Gymnast in past life? Literally?

    • Naimah W

      July 28, 2021 at 7:37 am

      She just means before she became a physicist she was a gymnast

  70. Me Me

    July 26, 2021 at 9:49 pm

    When did everyone get lost?

  71. Paul Kerton

    July 27, 2021 at 12:45 am

    Has the popularity of gymanstics in the US been affected by the increase in competition in the last 10 years or so? Before the 2010s the US was dominant to a ridiculous degree but now they find GB, Japan, China and Russia have stepped their games up, is it affecting the viewing figures?

  72. the one and only

    July 27, 2021 at 1:37 am

    2,3 acceleration! Amazing!!!

  73. David Klein

    July 27, 2021 at 2:49 am

    Why 2x pi x radius? Why not pi x Diam? Just to add an operation? These are same folks who insist Meters trump imperial?

    • Jun Yan Yap

      July 30, 2021 at 9:23 pm

      Because radius is much more commonly used to describe circular things than diameter…

  74. priscilla lim

    July 27, 2021 at 8:44 am

    It’s so weird seeing an American using Metric units, but that is nothing compared to her mind-boggling math and satisfying explanation that what gymnasts feel while doing giants on the high bar — the centrifuge force and pull of “another you”!!

    • Christine Cannibal

      July 29, 2021 at 2:08 pm

      You have to do physics math in metric. All Americans do physics in metric! 🙂

  75. Alex DelVento

    July 28, 2021 at 1:53 am

    No offense, but this doesn’t seem like Ph.D. student knowledge. It seems to be rather commonsensical information, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

    • Christine Cannibal

      July 29, 2021 at 2:10 pm

      Because she is doing a teaching video. She even said she was doing a very rough calculation so others can understand and not get lost lol. When you are teaching, you start with the basics!

  76. Alex DelVento

    July 28, 2021 at 1:58 am

    lol 4:19 take that out of context 😂

  77. T.F.B YouTube

    July 28, 2021 at 4:49 am

    Flashbacks on past physics highschool classes 😳

  78. Kcnl

    July 28, 2021 at 7:08 am

    Lol yall jinxed her 🤣

  79. Space

    July 28, 2021 at 6:40 pm

    This is easier than my high school physics.

  80. Instinctively Chelsea

    July 28, 2021 at 8:48 pm

    I thought she said simple physics…she talks talking Im like what in the intense math is going on here wooo..

  81. killer boy

    July 29, 2021 at 3:41 am

    😰

  82. Shreyas Deshmukh

    July 29, 2021 at 3:45 pm

    Did she just talk about her past life?

  83. Socially Distant

    July 29, 2021 at 4:41 pm

    On god, if teachers would have used these types of lessons to teach various subjects, I would’ve paid attention in class.

  84. Alcino Limad

    July 29, 2021 at 5:42 pm

    Alcino

  85. Coco D

    July 29, 2021 at 10:45 pm

    biles is a quitter

  86. Bruja Cat

    July 30, 2021 at 4:44 am

    Me listening to her explain the physics but comprehending half of what she said: 🤔 “Hmmm yes, very science.”

  87. Catherine O'Brien

    July 31, 2021 at 4:08 am

    Shannon Miller’s (Mag 7, 1996) father was a physics professor in Oklahoma and he used videos of Shannon doing gymnastics to teach.

  88. John Pen

    July 31, 2021 at 4:53 am

    omg so boring yawn

  89. JOMFSE

    August 2, 2021 at 12:12 am

    @1:50 assume Emily Kuhn is a sphere

  90. Searching for food On youtube

    August 3, 2021 at 1:03 am

    Now it’s about jade carey and suni lee 🇺🇸

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending

Exit mobile version