Chapter 4, Problem 4.57PP

BIO FORCES ON A DANCER'S BODY. Dancers experience large forces associated with the jumps they make. For example, when a dancer lands after a vertical jump, the force exerted on the head by the neck must exceed the head's weight by enough to cause the head to slow down and come to rest. The head is about 9.4% of a typical person’s mass. Video analysis of a 65-kg dancer landing after a vertical jump shows that her head decelerates from 4.0 m/s to rest in a time of 0.20 s.

4.57 What is the magnitude of the average force that her neck exerts on her head during the landing? (a) 0 N; (b) 60 N; (c) 120 N; (d) 180 N.

4.58 Compared with the force her neck exerts on her head during the landing, the force her head exerts on her neck is (a) the same; (b) greater; (c) smaller; (d) greater during the first half of the landing and smaller during the second half of the landing.

4.59 While the dancer is in the air and holding a fixed pose, what is the magnitude of the force her neck exerts on her head⁰ (a) 0 N; (b) 60 N; (c) 120 N; (d) 180 N.

4.60 The forces on a dancer can be measured directly when a dancer performs a jump on a force plate that measures the force between her feet and the ground. A graph of force versus time throughout a vertical jump performed on a force plate is shown in Fig. P4.60. What is happening at 0.4 s? The dancer is (a) bending her legs so that her body is accelerating downward; (b) pushing her body up with her legs and is almost ready to leave the ground; (c) in the air and at the top of her jump; (d) landing and her feet have just touched the ground.