3305: Ground Effect

Ground Effect

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Title text: Runners looking for aerodynamic advantage typically wear sneakers because some fancy dress shoes can create wingtip vortices.

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Explanation

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Transcript

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[Five Cueball-like runners are shown in the panel. At left, two of them are in the air, flailing their arms and legs as they float at least 12 feet off the ground. At right, three others are running to the right in a normal way. A dotted line is shown approximately parallel to the tops of those three runners' heads, and a regular line below them indicates the ground. An arrow points down toward the dotted line and another arrow points up toward the regular line.]

[Caption below the panel:]

The "ground effect" explains why sprinters can run most efficiently if they stay within roughly one body length of the surface.

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