No Limits

Bungee jumping is quite a dangerous sport and quite the adrenaline rush as well. You can jump from all kinds of places you just need to learn how to jump before you make your move. To make your jumps even more insane you can jump from moving bases like a helicopter, hot air balloon or something like that. There are no limits really when it comes to bungee jumping.

The word bungee came around in the 1930s but the first bungee jump didn’t happen until 1979. They used some kind of vine to do there bungee jumps with but I would figure that would hurt their feet as they fell and then were snapped back up that would sound like it would rip there ankles away from there legs. I don’t know how it is supposed to work but I guess it did.

A J Hackett of New Zealand was the first one to do a commercial bungee jump. Even though many other people had already done many jumps he was the first one to jump from monuments like the Eiffel tower. There are many places that you could make a jump from but you must learn how to jump before you just go and do it.

The whole point of the jump is the rubber rope or whatever you want to call it. When a jumper is falling when he hits the end of the rope the rope will snap back causing the jumper to go back in the upward direction and that will happen until all of the energy that came with the jump is neutralized. After you jump the first time and get to the bottom you will be snapped back towards where you jumped but will not come even close to the platform in which you jumped from.

Bungee jumping is what is considered an extreme sport. It is basically jumping off a platform with an elastic cord tied to the jumper. As the cord is stretched resistance slows the person before they reach the ground. Energy stored in the cord is reduced incrementally as the jumper is oscillated by the rebounding properties of the cord until they come to a state of equilibrium.

Hooke’s Law of Elasticity

One of the most useful physics laws that can be used to explain bungee jumping is Hooke’s Law of Elasticity. Robert Hooke was a British physicist from Great Britain. He lived during the 17th century and created a law that explained the restoring force of a spring.

Hooke’s Law of Elasticity can be expressed as F = -kx. In this formula F represents the amount of force required to restore elastic material to its position of initial equilibrium, k represents the spring constant, which is a constant force and x represents the distance between the fully stretched spring to the initial position of equilibrium.

Potential Energy

The principles of the bungee jumping sport rests in the potential energy that is stored in the spring or the elastic cord used in the sport. The potential energy of the cord can be expressed as U = .5kx^2. This formula will always produce a positive result, as opposed to the Hooke’s Law of Elasticity which has the potential to have oscillating results on both positive and negative sides of a graph.

Oscillation

Oscillation is another physical characteristic of the bungee jumping experience. Oscillation of the jumper can be expressed with the frequency formula: v = 1/(2 X pie) X the square root of (k/m). This formula can be graphed to demonstrate the position of the bungee jumper over time.