The hearts of sports fans were stirred recently by the fastest-ever try scored in international rugby. Welsh winger Dafydd Howells crossed the Fijian try line to score a mere six seconds after Angus O'Brien had started the game with a kickoff, in one of the fixtures in rugby's Junior World Cup played on June 2, 2014, in New Zealand. This startlingly quick score, though, is of interest to physics players as well as rugby players. Howells' try serves as an intriguing way to involve students in one of the “core competencies” of physicists—to model events in the real world. And with the Rugby World Cup taking place in 2015 in England, and rugby sevens making its debut in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil (U.S. teams have qualified for both events), rugby is increasing in popularity in America and is even gaining some coverage on television. Thanks to You-Tube, Howells' try is readily available to serve as a laboratory experiment for students to analyze.
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February 2015
PAPERS|
February 01 2015
Trying Physics: Analyzing the Motion of the Quickest Score in International Rugby
John Eric Goff;
John Eric Goff
Lynchburg College
, Lynchburg, VA
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Trevor Davis Lipscombe
Trevor Davis Lipscombe
The Catholic University of America Press
, Washington, DC
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Phys. Teach. 53, 72–74 (2015)
Citation
John Eric Goff, Trevor Davis Lipscombe; Trying Physics: Analyzing the Motion of the Quickest Score in International Rugby. Phys. Teach. 1 February 2015; 53 (2): 72–74. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4905800
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