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At what speed do divers hit the water in the Olympic 3 metre and 10 metre diving board events respectively?

Question #151484. Asked by gmackematix.
Last updated Jul 28 2024.
Originally posted Jul 27 2024 11:03 PM.

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1nn1 star
Answer has 1 vote
1nn1 star
13 year member
189 replies avatar

Answer has 1 vote.
From the 10 m platform, a diver will hit the water at 14.7 metres/second or 49.8 km/hr assuming they will be diving vertically. From the 3m springboard, it will depend on the height they reach when they bounce upward off the springboard but it will be less than the 10 metre dive.

link https://exetersciencecentre.org/projects/nibbles/diving/

Jul 28 2024, 7:09 AM
gmackematix
Answer has 1 vote
gmackematix
22 year member
3206 replies

Answer has 1 vote.
For those who can do a bit of algebra, the required equation of motion here is v^2 = u^2 + 2as assuming the short times involved don't give air resistance much time to affect the result.
.
Here v is the final speed, u is the starting speed, a is acceleration which here is the gravitational acceleration at sea level, often given as 9.81 m/s/s, and s is the distance travelled. At the top of the jump, the starting vertical speed is zero, so u can be ignored.

Assuming the diver doesn't jump more than 1.5 metres up in the air, then s is between 3 and 4.5 metres for the lower board.
So v^2 is between 2x9.81x3 and 2x9.81x4.5, or 58.86 and 88.29 m^2/s/s.
Taking the square root gives v between 7.67 and 9.4 m/s (about 17 to 21 mph)

Assuming the diver doesn't jump more than 1.5 metres up in the air, then s is between 10 and 11.5 metres for the higher board (about the height of a three storey building or two giraffes).
So v^2 is between 2x9.81x10 and 2x9.81x11.5, or 196.2 and 225.63 m^2/s/s.
Taking the square root gives v between 14.0 and 15.0 m/s (about 31 to 33.6 mph)

Other equations can tell you that the highboard divers are falling for 1.4 to 1.5 seconds, while lowboard divers only have 0.8 to 0.95 seconds in which to do their tricks.

link https://www.ncl.ac.uk/webtemplate/ask-assets/external/maths-resources/mechanics/kinematics/equations-of-motion.html#:~:text=at2.-,v%20%3D%20u%20%2B%20a%20t%20%2C%20s%20%3D%20(%20u%20%2B,represents%20the%20direction%20of%20motion.

Jul 28 2024, 10:00 AM
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