08

Fall
T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f A k r o n
Virginia Gegick and Joseph Johnson

Spring
12
Modeling a Flyaway
Gegick, Johnson - Page 2
Abstract

In this paper we modeled the motion of a gymnast as she releases from the uneven
bars and does a flyaway. We will consider the following questions. When the gymnast
lands, will she have a perfect landing i.e. she lands on her feet without taking any steps?
How will we determine if the gymnast had a perfect landing? How will determine if the
gymnast can stay on her feet if she does not land perfectly i.e. does not land perpendicular
to the ground? After analysis of our model, we found explicit solutions for the first two
questions and an implicit solution for the third question.














Gegick, Johnson - Page 3

Introduction
In gymnastics there is an event called the uneven bars. In this event a gymnast
swings from one bar to another, one being called the low bar and one being called the high
bar, and eventually the gymnast will release from the high bar and attempt to land on her
feet. In this paper, we aim to model the motion of a gymnast as she releases from the
uneven bars and does a flyaway. A flyaway is a back flip performed after the gymnast
releases from the high bar. To model the motion of a gymnast, we need to take into account
the angle of the gymnast with respect to the horizontal axis stemming from the center of
mass of the gymnast. We also need to know the position of the gymnasts center of mass at
a specific time. For simplicity, we will model the gymnast as a rectangle with a uniform
density. To derive our equations in our model, we will use Newtons Second Law with the
only force acting on the gymnast being gravity and ignoring air resistance.
With the model that we derive, we seek to answer the following questions:
- If the gymnast were aiming to stick a perfect flyaway i.e. she land on her feet
perfectly, without taking any steps, how would the parameters need to be chosen
for that to happen?
- If the gymnast does land perfectly, what is the time it takes her from letting go of the
bar to landing on the ground?
- Under realistic conditions, gymnasts wont always stick the landing perfectly. We
would like to see how the parameters would need to be chosen if gymnast does not
land perfectly i.e. does not land perpendicular to the ground, but still lands on her
feet?
Gegick, Johnson - Page 4
Model
We will model the gymnast as a rectangle R with one end representing the
gymnasts head and the other end the gymnasts feet. This rectangle will have length l and
width w. We will assume that the mass is distributed uniformly through R with mass
density

(x, y) = , where

is a constant.
To find the total mass of the gymnast, we integrate the mass density over the area of
the rectangle. So,

m = (x, y)dA = dxdy
R
}}
R
}}
= lw.
In order to derive equations that will describe the gymnasts angular motion, we will need
to find an expression for the moment of inertia just before she releases from the bar. For
this calculation, we will choose our axes so that the rectangle is centered at the origin,
therefore the center of mass is

(x , y ) =(0,0). The moment of inertia about the center of
mass is

I = (x
2
+ y
2
R
}}
)(x, y)dA =
w
3
l
12
+
wl
3
12
|
\

|
.
|
= wl
w
2
+ l
2
12
|
\

|
.
| .
Since

wl is the rectangles area and

is the density of the gymnast,

wl = m, where

m is
the mass of the gymnast. We can rewrite the moment of inertia about the center of mass as

I = m
w
2
+ l
2
12
|
\

|
.
| .
To know where the gymnast lands and how she lands, we will need to know the
translational motion and the angular motion. We will say the vector function

r
P (t)
describes the position of the center of mass of the gymnast at time t. To describe

u(t) we
will consider an axis that starts at the gymnasts head and goes straight through the center
Gegick, Johnson - Page 5
of mass. Also, we will consider an axis that goes through the center of mass horizontally.
We will say

u(t) is the angle that is formed from the intersection of these two axes.





Using the Balance of Linear and Angular Momentum, we arrive at these equations:

(1)

m
r

P = mg

j
(2)

I

u = moments =0

.
Note that

m
r

P = mg

j because gravity is the only force acting on the gymnast as she
releases from the uneven bars and we are ignoring air resistance in our model.
After solving (1) we have

r
P (t) =
t
2
2
g +v
0
t + y
0
|
\

|
.
|

j + u
0
t + x
0
( )

i
where

u
0
is the initial velocity of the center of mass in the horizontal direction and

v
0
is the
initial velocity of the center of mass in the vertical direction. Also,

x
0
is the initial
horizontal component of position of the center of mass and

y
0
is the initial vertical
component of position of the center of mass. Also,


i is the unit vector in the horizontal
direction and


j is the unit vector in the vertical direction. After solving (2) we have

u(t) =e
0
t +u
0


u(t)
Gegick, Johnson - Page 6
where

e
0
is the initial angular velocity and

u
0
is the initial angle that is formed from the
intersection of the axis that starts at the gymnasts head and goes straight through the
center of mass and the axis that goes through the center of mass horizontally.
Now we relate initial position with the initial angle because there are only a few
feasible combinations of

u
0
,

x
0
, and

y
0
. If we set the origin at the bottom of the high bar
and if we call the height of the high bar that gymnast is releasing from we can generate a
relation between initial position and the initial angle of the gymnast. We will use the
following diagram to acquire all the information necessary to derive the following
equations.















y
0

u
0

x
0

|

| y
0

u
0
90

r
P (0)

l
2
Gegick, Johnson - Page 7

We called the gymnasts height

l and using geometric identities we will get the
following equations for

x
0
and

y
0
:
(3)

x
0
=
lsin(u
0
90)
2

(4)

y
0
= |
lcos(u
0
90)
2

These equations represent the realistic initial conditions for x and y given an initial

u . To show the relationship in our model we will replace

x
0
and

y
0
with the expressions
we found for

x
0
and

y
0
in equations (3) and (4). This will make the solution for equation
(1) look like

r
P (t) =
t
2
2
g +v
0
t + |
l cos(u
0
90)
2
|
\

|
.
|

j + u
0
t +
l sin(u
0
90)
2
|
\

|
.
|

i
.











Gegick, Johnson - Page 8
Analysis and Discussion
It is not enough to model only the motion of a flyaway, one also should model
whether the gymnast lands on her feet or not. This is why we will find out how the
parameters would need to be chosen for the gymnast if she were aiming to stick a perfect
flyaway. This means that the gymnast must be perfectly upright when she lands and we
will count any other option as a failure.
Because a success with the restrictions we set up is the gymnast landing straight up
and down, we can assume the gymnasts center of mass is

l
2
above the ground. Also, it
does not matter how far horizontally the gymnast travels. So, it means we will have to find
when the y-component of

r
P (t) equals

l
2
and this also means that

u(t) must equal 90
degrees when the y-component equals

l
2
for it to be counted as a success. If we set the
vertical component of equation (1) equal to

l
2
, we have

gt
2
2
+v
0
t + |
l cos(u
0
90)
2
=
l
2
.

Now the relevant equation is
(5)

gt
2
2
+v
0
t + |
l cos(u
0
90)
2

l
2
= 0.
Now setting

|
lcos(u
0
90)
2

l
2
= and using the quadratic equation we can see that the
solution to (5) is


t =
v
0
m v
0
2
+ 4
g
2
|
\

|
.
| c
g
.
Gegick, Johnson - Page 9
Now one can see that at the lowest value of

|
lcos(u
0
90)
2

l
2
is

|l. To be able to
swing around the high bar the height of the gymnast must be less the height of the high bar
i.e. >

l . This means that

|l > 0 and > 0. This implies that

4
gc
2
|
\

|
.
| > 0 and

v
0
2
+
4gc
2
|
\

|
.
| > v
0
. In order to get a valid solution we must consider when t is positive so the
only valid solution that we can get is


t =
v
0
+ v
0
2
+ 4
g
2
|
\

|
.
| c
g
.
Now we can define a success when

u(t) =90+360k, where

k is a nonnegative integer and a
failure when

u(t) =90+360k. This means that the parameters must satisfy the equation

u(

t ) =e
0
v
0
+ v
0
2
+2g |
l(cos(u
0
90) +1)
2
|
\

|
.
|
|
\

|
.
|
g
|
\





|
.
|
|
|
|
|
+u
0
= 90+ 360k
for the landing of the gymnast to be considered a success. One can see that

k represents
the number of flips that the gymnast executed. The plot of

u(

t ) varying

v
0
from 0 to 100,

e
0
from 0 to 100, and

u
0
from to 3/2 looks like





Gegick, Johnson - Page 10


One can see that

u(

t ) passes through the values

90 + 360k for the combinations

v
0
,

e
0
, and

u
0
that we prescribed, so there are solutions for

u(

t ) = 90+ 360k.
Answering when a flyaway is stuck perfectly is helpful, but surely not realistic all the
time; therefore one might be interested in finding when the gymnast lands with a certain
leeway. In our model we will allow about 5 degrees of leeway i.e.

85su(t
*
) s95, where

t
*

is the time when any part the gymnasts body touches the ground. To specify the
parameters necessary to accomplish this, we will need to do some more geometric analysis.
To say when the gymnast will touch the ground we will need to understand these
properties of the landing:
Gegick, Johnson - Page 11
- As

u(t
*
) 90

the y-component of

r
P (t
*
)
l
2

- As

u(t
*
) 0 or

u(t
*
) 180 the y-component of

r
P (t
*
)
w
2


















To actually write out an equation that describes this phenomenon will use geometric
properties. There will be two cases we need to consider, the first will be when she lands

r
P (t
*
)

r
P (t
*
)

u(t
*
) = 90

l
2

u(t
*
) =180

w
2
Gegick, Johnson - Page 12
and

90 >u(t
*
) >85 and the second will be when she lands and

95>u(t
*
) >90. The following
diagram describes the geometry behind the first case.








Pulling out the relevant information from the diagram we can see that

y
*
=
w
2
cos u(t
*
)
( )
+
l
2
sin u(t
*
)
( )
, where

y
*
is the y-component of

r
P (t
*
). Setting

y
*
equal to
the y-component of equation will get

g(t
*
)
2
2
+v
0
t
*
+ |
l cos(u
0
90)
2
=
wcos(u(t
*
))
2
+
l sin(u(t
*
))
2
.
The second case has the following geometric properties shown by the following diagram.







u(t
*
)

y
*

w
2

l
2

l
2
sin u(t
*
)
( )

w
2
cos u(t
*
)
( )

u(t
*
)

y
*

w
2

l
2

l
2
sin 180u(t
*
)
( )

w
2
cos180 u(t
*
)
( )
Gegick, Johnson - Page 13







Using the information from the diagram we get



We cannot explicitly solve these equations so we just have to understand that the
parameters must satisfy this equation.











y
*
=
w
2
cos180u(t
*
) ( )+
l
2
sin 180u(t
*
) ( )
Gegick, Johnson - Page 14








Summary
In the end we found out how the parameters must be selected for a perfect landing
and a landing where the gymnast lands very close to sticking the landing. We did not get an
explicit solution to figure out if the gymnast has a near perfect landing, but we did get an
explicit equation for when the gymnast has a perfect landing.