Olympic Turns
This task looks at the different turns involved in different Olympic sports as a way of exploring the mathematics of turns and angles.
Problem
Here are photos of some Olympic sports that involve turns and angles in different ways. Choose one of these photos to investigate and see what angles you can find.
Can you estimate them?
Can you measure them?
How do we use angles to help us when we take part in different sporting activities?
On the Olympic website you can find lots of photos, images and video clips that show turns and angles in different ways. Explore your favourite Olympic event for angles and turns.
Getting Started
Can you see any angles in the way in which the athlete holds his or her body or their arms or legs?
How do they hold the equipment they use? Do the angles they use affect their score?
Student Solutions
So the $16$ pictures caused you to look carefully and think about turning and angles. Here are three ideas that were sent in.
First from Alex who is at Stoke by Nayland Middle School and this is what Alex says:
You find $90$ degrees and then you work from there giving a rough estimate at where they are.
Secondly Russell from St. Anselm's wrote:
I chose the basketball player. She is bending her arms at a obtuse angle at $140$ degrees and she is firing the ball out of her hands. Before that she had her arms at a right angle at $90$ degrees ready to fire.
Lastly Joe from West Hove Junior School thought about the swimmer.
$95$ degrees on the elbow
$45$ degrees on the other elbow
$90$ degrees on the waist
We had three late submissions come from the British International School in Vietnam, firstly Tamzin who wrote:
I think the angle of the swimmer (bottom row, first from the left) is $92$ Degrees, because it looks a teeny bit more than a right angle.
and from Simran who copied the picture of the Diver and wrote:
This is a Dive Taken place during the olympics in which some parts of your body have to be in a particular angle, example- your feet need to be absolutely pointed $180 °$. Also your hands need to be in a fist which is $360 °$. Some divers fall into the water after turning $360 °$, most divers fall in with their bodies as a stream line which is $180 °$.
finally Nadya wrote:
The picture that I have a solution for is on the Bottom row second to the left. I think it is around an $85$ Degrees because it cannot be $90$. If it was $90$ degrees then her body would be completely straight. She might have used a beam or trampoline to give her a push to become that shape.
Thank you all for these thoughtful solutions.
Teachers' Resources
Olympic Turns
Here are photos of some Olympic sports that involve turns and angles in different ways. Choose one of these photos to investigate and see what angles you can find.
Can you estimate them?
Can you measure them?
How do we use angles to help us when we take part in different sporting activities?
On the Olympic website you can find lots of photos, images and video clips that show turns and angles in different ways. Explore your favourite Olympic event for angles and turns.
Why do this problem?
Different sports involve angles in different ways. Gymnastics involves making the body twist, turn and spin to accomplish different feats. Ball games involve choosing the angle at which to pass the ball to another player or to aim for the goal. The Olympic Games can offer children a motivating context in which to explore angles and turns and gain a deeper understanding of the concepts involved in a real world setting.
Possible approach
Print and laminate the photos in the collection and ask children to explore the angles they can see. Pupils can draw the straight lines they can see on top of the pictures and then estimate or measure the angles that are made by these lines. They could begin by choosing their favourite event and exploring the angles and turns involved in that. Some sports will be easier to explore than others.
Key questions
Which angles are important? Why?
What would change if that angle was bigger/smaller? Why has the athlete chosen to position their body at that angle?
Can you estimate that angle? Can you measure it?
Look at a video clip. Are there any angles involved in the sport that are important? Are there turns involved? How much does the athlete turn? How do the angles at which they hold their arms, their legs or pieces equipment affect their success?
Possible support
The icons on the Olympic website provide static images which will be easier to explore using protractors to measure them. If you print out the images then it will be possible to draw lines on them to make the angles easier to see and to measure.
Possible extension
Ask the children to choose a sport and explore the Olympic website to find videos and photos that show angles and turns in the context of that sport. The dynamic situations in the video clips will be harder to explore than the static images and should provide challenge for the most enthusiastic learners with the best grasp of angles and turns.
"2014 DécaNation - Discus throw 08" by Pierre-Yves Beaudouin, Wikimedia Commons is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 / Cropped from original
"Fencing at the 2012 Summer Olympics 6869" by Ian Patterson is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 / Cropped from original
"Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics (7925493010)" by cdephotos is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 / Cropped from original
"2008 Summer Olympics - Men's 110m Hurdles - Semifinal 1" by akiwitz is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 / Cropped from original
"2018-10-13 Training (Diving Girls 10m platform) at 2018 Summer Youth Olympics by Sandro Halank-028" by Sandro Halank, Wikimedia Commons is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 / Cropped from original
"2019-09-01 ISTAF 2019 High jump (Martin Rulsch) 055" by Martin Rulsch, Wikimedia Commons is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 / Cropped from original
"2018-10-13 Jump 4 (Diving Girls 10m platform) at 2018 Summer Youth Olympics by Sandro Halank-145" by Sandro Halank, Wikimedia Commons is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 / Cropped from original
"Murraywilliams_2019" by Brian Minkoff - London Pixels is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 / Cropped from original
"2018-10-13 Gymnastics at 2018 Summer Youth Olympics - Boys' Artistic Gymnastics - Apparatus finals - Pommel horse (Martin Rulsch) 162" by Martin Rulsch, Wikimedia Commons is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 / Cropped from original