An Introduction to Mechanics of Human Movement

to Mechanics of Human Movetnent by James Watkins Scottish School oj Physical Education lordanhill College oj Education, Glasgow, Scotland 1983 M. TP PRESS LIM. ITED . . . . a member of (he KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS GROteP BOSTON / THE HAGUE! DORDRECHT ! LANCASTER " Published by MTP Press Limited Lancaster, England Copyright © 1983 MTP Press Limited Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1983 First published 1983 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, phoopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Watkins, James An introduction to mechanics of human movement 1. Human locomotion I. Title 612476 QP303 ISBN-13: 978-94-011-7815-0 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-011-7813-6 DOl: 10. 1007/978-94-01\-7813-6 Typeset by Blackpool Typesetting Services Ltd. , Blackpool. Bound by WBC Bookbinders Ltd. , Maesteg, Mid Glamorgan. Contents PREFACE vii INTRODUCTION Mechanics of human movement 1 1. 1 1. 2 Forms of motion 2 1. 3 Units 3 LINEAR MOTION 2 2. 1 Distance and speed, displacement and velocity 4 2. 2 Acceleration 11 2. 3 Vector and scalar quantities 13 2. 4 Mass, inertia and linear momentum 21 2. 5 Force and Newton's First Law of Motion 21 2. 6 Newton's Law of Gravitation (law of attraction); gravity and weight 23 2. 7 Newton's second law of motion; the impulse of a force 27 2. 8 Units of force 31 2.