Physical Science in Street Sports

Physical Science in Street Sports is part of Crabtree’s “Science Gets Physical” series. The series title says it all. Author Enzo George effectively shows how physical science applies to several street sports: skateboarding, soapbox racing, inline skating, parkour, and ball games.

Moving and Steering
A skateboard is a machine. It transfers kinetic energy from the rider to the rolling velocity of the wheels. This was all explained more than 350 years ago by a scientist who had never seen a skateboard. His name was Isaac Newton.

The main body of text is mostly black on white, with additional information contained in “Science Wins!” and “Getting Physical” coloured text boxes. “Science Wins!” highlights stars of the sports and how science works to enhance their performance. “Getting Physical” explains the physics behind different aspects of the sports.

Getting Physical: Pumping
In a halfpipe or a bowl, skaters need speed to shoot up over the lip to do tricks. But, it is hard to push off the curved ground with their feet.

The answer is pumping. As the board crosses the flattish part of the U-shaped tube, the rider crouches down. Then, they straighten up as the board reaches the bottom of the sloping wall. That increases the rider’s energy, which makes the board travel faster. As the board begins to curve upward, centripetal force pulls the rider down toward the board. This requires more energy for the rider to straighten up. The work of straightening up gains a little energy for the board and rider so they travel faster. The effect is similar to swinging your legs at the bottom of a swing’s arc to “kick” the swing higher.

The photographs in Physical Science in Street Sports are action-packed and show both males and females in the different sports. Although protective gear hides some faces, readers will get the impression that the overwhelming number of street sports participants are white/Caucasian.

Another questionable aspect of one photo in the Soapbox Racing chapter is the caption, “The drink manufacturer Red Bull sponsors a series of international soapbox car races. These bring in interesting entries, including some that can travel very quickly.” A quick internet search shows that many different businesses and organizations sponsor international soapbox races. This caption seems inappropriate in a book for this age level.

Each book in the “Science Gets Physical” series ends with an activity section titled “Get Physical!” In Physical Science in Street Sports, readers investigate momentum. This activity includes a list of materials you will need, instructions, an analysis consisting of three questions, and a conclusion. For the sake of encouraging students to attempt to answer the “Why do you think that might be?” question, it would have been advantageous to have the “Conclusion” explanation on a different page. The physical layout of the explanation directly below the question leaves no opportunity for using the information in the book to reach an independent answer to the question.

Overall, Physical Science in Street Sports is a book that will appeal to your athletes and your science-minded students, but a greater diversity of sports participants in the photographs would have made it even better.