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Olympic Materials

Olympic Materials. Ancient Olympic Games. Originally athletes wore no clothes. Original shoes used leather or twine to attach the shoe to the foot. Bark was used for outsoles. There was no difference in clothing or shoes used in different sports or weather conditions.

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Olympic Materials

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  1. Olympic Materials

  2. Ancient Olympic Games • Originally athletes wore no clothes. • Original shoes used leather or twine to attach the shoe to the foot. Bark was used for outsoles. • There was no difference in clothing or shoes used in different sports or weather conditions. • Materials used were natural materials, egspears were made from wood and the discus from stone.

  3. Modern Olympic Games • Clothes are worn! • A wide variety of materials are used. These include natural and synthetic materials. • List some natural and synthetic materials used in modern Olympic sports.

  4. Lycra • Invented by Joseph Shivers in 1959. • Specific properties include: • Stretchy - it can stretch to five times • its normal length without breaking • Lightweight • Soft • Not damaged by sunlight, sweat or detergents • Made of a chain of alternating flexible and rigid molecules • Used in a huge range of sports clothing.

  5. Carbon fibre • Created in 1958 by Dr Roger Bacon. • Properties include: • Stiff • Lightweight • Easily broken in some directions • Used with other materials to create composites.

  6. Carbon Fibre Carbon fibres in a plastic matrix forming a composite. The plastic is shown in yellow and the carbon fibres in grey. This is a scanning tunnelling microscope image.

  7. Teflon • Invented accidentally by Roy Plunkett in 1938. • Teflon is a trade name for polytetrafluoroethene or PTFE. • It is a fluoropolymer which is slippery and unreactive. • Gore-Tex® has a plastic layer based on Teflon. • Teflon-based top used in canoe slalom • Waterproof • Breathable

  8. Materials and track cycling • Riding on an inclined track. • 1 km and 4 km races. • The bikes are made from Kevlar and carbon-fibre composite. They have only one gear and no brakes

  9. Track cycling bikes • Weight 1/acceleration (weight is proportional to 1 divided by acceleration) • So for good acceleration it is really important to reduce the weight – but the bike wheel must still be rigid. Traditional sport bicycle wheel - Weighs about 1 kg Track cycling bicycle wheel - Weighs about 500 g • Foam filled solid wheels have good stiffness and are aerodynamic.

  10. Swimming • In 2008 a new style of swim suit began to be used in competitions. • It was made of polyurethane and the surface was based on shark skin. • World records were broken quickly. Up until 2009 there were only two world records which were set before the new suits were introduced. • The new suits were banned from 1st January 2010 and now suits have to be made from woven textiles as before.

  11. Materials Science and the Olympics • What do you think? • Should Olympic athletes be allowed to take advantage of any improvements in technology? • Should they be limited to technology from the past? • Are World Records valid if they use technology not available in previous years? • Or should they all compete naked using only natural materials like in the ancient Olympics?

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