Summary
Contents
This book provides students and scholars with a fail-safe guide to the key concepts in the field of Sport & Exercise Science. Intelligently cross-referenced entries provide a sound map of the multi-disciplinary demands of sport related courses including physical and biological sciences, social science and education. The entries use clear definitions, examples, and suggestions for further reading to explore each discipline.
Fluid Mechanics
Fluid Mechanics
Fluid mechanics is the area of sport and exercise biomechanics that helps us understand the forces exerted on objects or bodies by interactions with the fluid they are travelling through. These are often studied separately where the fluid is air (aerodynamics) or water (hydrodynamics). However, the two main concepts and mechanical principles are the same for both:
- drag forces, which are forces that are parallel and opposite to the motion of the object or body as it moves through a fluid, and
- lift forces, which always act perpendicular (at a right angle (90o)) to the direction of flow of the fluid.
To understand drag and lift forces we must focus on the relative motion between the object or body and the fluid that it is ...
