With only a few weeks to go until the opening ceremony of the Olympics the hot topic in our ‘Ask a Sports Engineer’ question box this week was about the Olympics and the importance of the event. History The Olympics originally started as a series of competitions between representatives from cities in Ancient Greece. The […]
The great physicist Niels Bohr was responsible for the famous quote “prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future”. Of course that doesn’t stop us trying – especially when it comes to sport and doubly so if you are hosting the next Olympics in London. Some of my colleagues (Simon Shibli and Chris […]
I taught the mechanics of solids to mechanical engineering students for around 15 years. When it came to exams, I always tried to include examples from the real world that would stretch the most able of the students – I even had a question relating the bending of beams with the deflection of springboards during […]
Well, 2012 is here. At last. It’s been a long wait and it seems like we’ve been talking about 2012 forever. For anyone involved in elite sport it is like a switch has been thrown – I’m only on the periphery and it’s manic so it must be crazy for those at the centre of […]
Over the past couple of years I have been quite busy speaking about the role of technology in disability sport at numerous science festivals and conferences. South Africa’s ground breaking decision to select the bi-lateral amputee, Oscar Pistorius, to compete at the IAAF World Championships in South Korea has prompted me to finally write a […]
The effects of wind on long distance running have been discussed on this blog previously, particularly on marathons. Now with the approach of the World Athletics Championships, I thought I would look at the effects of wind on sprinting. I will begin with my own experiences – when I was a teenager I was an enthusiastic 100m […]
The common perception of engineering and sport is that of shiny new bikes, aerodynamic helmets and sleek bobsleds. I often get asked, “isn’t it just the best equipment that wins now, rather than the athlete?” The answer – as far as I’m concerned – is obviously “no” and I’ve spent my working life in the […]
We have known for quite some time here at Sheffield Hallam University the value of using sport to teach science. Sport is ideal for grabbing people’s attention and getting them interested in science, engineering and technology. We often do public lectures which are always packed out by people interested in sport who also want to know more about […]
The velodrome which will host the track cycling events at the 2012 Olympics in London is now open. The facility is the first to open in the Olympic village and has been given the title of the ‘best in the World’. When a country hosts a major sports event, such as the Olympics, they want to […]
Introduction Haile Gebrselassie from Ethiopia is one of the greatest marathon runners of all time. He set the current world record of 2 hours 3 minutes and 59 seconds at the 2008 Berlin Marathon. Recently he announced his retirement, after dropping out of the 2010 New York Marathon with an injury. He later reversed his decision following a letter from Brendan Foster. “My announcement in […]
Engineering Sport 