Skateboarding: A

Math
has an important If the distance from one side of the
role in the designing of half pipe to the other is 24 feet and it
a skate park. Designers took the skateboarder 6 seconds to
must measure every travel this distance we can calculate
aspect of the park in order his speed.
to be sure it stays within
the allotted area. Mis- Ska speed = distance
measuring is not an in m boa te time
a r d s
option. sha ny d com
i
The pes an fferen e
t
dim avera d size
e s
of a nsion ge .
4 = 24/6, therefore his speed is 4 ft/s
ma kate s s If a
n
the ufactu oard
b has board
i
U
tod nited ed in r pro curvat s conc
ay p er s u re i ave t
and is 8 State t n
Wid 30.5” 75” wi
. s a b ility. three his me
d diffe ans
said er boa in leng e A s ren t
t pla hat the
to r d s th . kate
mo per ces b
re s provid are f boa , pr oard
tab e has ectly b rd can ovid
ility the u b ing
Based on the park blueprint, a CAD system is used . fina t ultima e eng
l sa in
to generate a 3 dimensional representation. y. tely the eered
! The measurements are then used to Thr ska
e ter
! determine what the cost of boa e to fi
r d s v e
ma
! ! building the park de can b
time a t on e
! ! ! will be. . e

$ Financing a skatepark is expensive.

For every square foot of skate-able
surface in a concrete park it costs
$
$20-25. If we want to build a 10,000
! square foot concrete park, this would
be more than $200,000. Sounds like

$ $
a lot, right? This total doesn’t include
the other “hidden” fees.
Mathematical Timeline by: Christina Leonard

Sir Isaac Newton

developed his three
1687
laws of motion.
See the following for
examples:

1st “An object in motion will stay in motion

until acted upon by an outside force”
A skateboard will keep rolling at a
constant speed until it hits something. A study by the National

2nd
Sporting Goods
Acceleration is directly proportional to 1979-80 Association shows that over March 30, 2012
force and inversely proportional to the course of 10 years Tom Schaar, just 12
mass. A small skateboarder exerting skateboarding has increased years old, lands the
the same force as a bigger by 74.1%. Starting in 1997, first 1080 in
skateboarder accelerates Mont Hubbard, an ESPN decided to broadcast skateboarding
faster.

3rd
engineering scientist in the XGames on television, history. The
! For every California, was the first to exposing more individuals to previous record was
! action there’s look at skateboarding from a the sport. (This is probably held by Tony Hawk
an equal and scientific standpoint. He what lead to the spike in who landed the 900.
opposite reaction. proposed two models about numbers, along with the A 1080 consists of
the relationship between a numerous video games). three full rotations
Placing your foot
on the tail of a skater and his board. 1998-2007 while in the air.
skateboard forces
the nose into the
air.

Alan “Ollie” Gelfand 2008

performs the first ollie, 1978
a maneuver required
for a multitude of Russian mathematicians Kremnev and Koleshov
other tricks. set out to test Mont Hubbard’s models about
skateboarding. Found that stability of motion and
direction of motion are linked.
 Christina Leonard

Annotated Bibliography

Bradstreet, Scott. Skateboard Parks: Design & Development. Atglen: Schiffer, 2009.

Print.!

! ! I used this source for the information on skatepark budgeting. I feel as

! though it supplied me with enough valuable information in order to create

! my own scenario about finances. I would highly recommend this book to

! anyone else who is working on a project about skateboarding. Due to the

! fact that he book is all about one subject, I feel as though the information

! is reliable and the author has an expertise with this topic. I learned a lot of

! information about skateparks that I would not have learned otherwise.

Doherty, Paul and Pearl Tesler. “Jumping: The Ollie.” Exploratorium. n.p. n.d. Web.

! 3 May 2012.

! ! From this source, I found information about the famous Alan “Ollie”

! ! Gelfand and his achievements at a young age. I learned a lot of

! ! information about how the ollie is performed and the science behind it.

! ! The graphical representations on this site really helped give me a greater

! ! understanding. This is a highly reliable source as it’s extension is .org.

“Newton’s Three Laws of Motion. University of Tennessee Knoxville. n.d. Web. 3 May

! 2012.

! ! Newton’s three laws of motion were clearly outlined on this site in a way

! ! that allowed me to apply them to skateboarding. I feel that because I used

! ! a scholarly site such as this one, I have a greater understanding of the

 Christina Leonard

! ! laws of motion. I would not have known how important the laws of motion

! ! were in skateboarding had it not been for this site.

“Riding a Half Pipe.” Angelfire. n.d. Web. 3 May 2012.

! ! I knew it was possible to calculate a skateboarder’s speed although I did

! ! not think that it would be this easy. With this source, I learned how math

! ! can be applied to something so simple, and how simple the process could

! ! be!

"Skate Park Designer". Math 2 Success. n.d. Web. 3 May 2012.

! ! The video on this site allowed me to learn about the profession of

! ! skatepark design in a fun and creative way. I like the way they

! ! incorporated the obvious ways that math is used, along with the ways that

! ! aren’t so obvious. I feel as though this wasn’t necessarily a scholarly

! ! source, but due to the quality of the video it’s definitely reliable.

“Skateboarding.” Wikipedia. 5 May 2012. Web. 5 May 2012.

! ! Although Wikipedia is often called unreliable I completely disagree. In this

! ! case, a lot of the information I found on this site was also confirmed by

! ! other sites. It really helped me achieve the measurements I wanted about

! ! skateboard decks.

Skateboarding 10-Year Winner in Sports Participation Growth. National Sporting Goods

! Association. 2008 May. Web. 3 May 2012.

! ! This source provided me with statistical data about how many

! ! skateboarders there are as compared to other sports. This is a reliable

! ! source because the information is from a credited association.

 Christina Leonard

Wanner, Noel. “The Science and Art of Skateboard Design.” Exploratorium. n.p. n.d.

! Web. 3 May 2012.

! ! This website gave me a lot of insight into the work that goes into making a

! ! skateboard. I was not aware that a skateboard is made out of seven

! ! layers, or that multiple skateboards can be made at one time. I feel as

! ! though this site is reliable because it contains an abundance of

! ! information pertaining to skateboarding.

Kremnev, Andrey & Alexander Kuleshov. “Dynamics and Simulation of the Simplest

! Model of a Skateboard.” Moscow State University. n.p. 4 Jul. 2008. Web. 3 May

! 2012.

! ! I like this source because it drew ideas from one of my other sources and

! ! took it just a little bit farther. I would have to say this is a very credible

! ! source as it was a study conducted by the Moscow State University. The

! ! only problem I had with this source was that it used very scientific speech

! ! that was hard for me to understand. I feel that if I was more comfortable

! ! with the language this would have been an excellent resource.

Images:

http://www.giantbomb.com/espn-x-games-skateboarding/61-21758/all-images/

52-179241/ps2_espn_x_games_skateboarding/51-240348/

! This is the case of the XGames Skateboarding game. I chose this because it

! represents how much of an impact the XGames has on youth by presenting itself

! in a video game format.

 Christina Leonard

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2939191930259&set=a.

2555714623566.2104004.1574970140&type=1&theater

! I chose this photo because I had the feel I was going for. I wanted something

! that would show a skateboarder in action. This photo was taken by George

! Brady who is a graphic design student at Appalachian State University. He used

! photoshop to edit it and later posted it on his Facebook. I asked for his

! permission beforehand to use it in my project.

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x232/mavind/dorchester_web.jpg

! This photo, in contrast with the one below, provides a 3 dimensional

! representation of a skate park blue print. I wanted to have a 3D representation

! and a blue print of the same park so the viewer would be able to see how a CAD

! system adds dimension.

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x232/mavind/dorchester_dims.jpg

! This photo, in contrast with the one above, provides the blueprint of a skatepark.

! I wanted the viewer to be able to see just how much measuring has to be done

! for a skate park during the planning process.

http://www.ultimateuniverse.net/images/isaac_newton_hd.jpg

! I chose this picture of Isaac Newton because when I hear his name this is the

! picture of him I create in my mind.

http://cf.mp-cdn.net/7d/7b/67ec3cf029ed35135666012b155f.jpg

! My two favorite colors are black and blue, which had a lot to do with why I chose

! this picture of a skateboard. Also, I knew I would be covering up the design with
 Christina Leonard

! a black square so that I could use white text over it. I feel as though it creates a

! great amount of contrast between the other elements of my project.

http://www.tbonephoto.com/images/34olliefaceshot.jpg

! I chose this picture of Alan Gelfand because it was one of the only ones I could

! find where he was looking at the camera. I could have picked one where he was

! skating, but I wanted to find one that captured just how young he really was.

http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/penog123/penog1230701/

penog123070100047/732340-skateboard-boy-silhouettes-with-different-poses-over-

white-background.jpg

! I wanted to have little silhouettes of skateboarders all around my project because

! I don’t like the idea of a lot of white space. I feel as though these were a good

! representation of the many different stances a skateboarder can have.

http://mae.ucdavis.edu/faculty/hubbard/hubbard.jpg

! This photo of Mont Hubbard is taken directly from UCA’s department website. I

! feel as though it’s very scholarly, without his face looking too stern.

http://www.allisports.com/sites/default/files/images/uploads/tom-schaar.jpg

! I wanted to have a photo of Tom Schaar on my project, though in many of the

! other pictures he looked incredibly young. I feel as though this project gives him

! an edge of maturity even if he is just 12 years old.

http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_image.php?d=AQAb26hwmkf2czeP&url=http%3A%2F

%2Fecx.images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F21OvPCU48AL.jpg

! I’m fully aware that this link doesn’t actually work. I found this photo on Google

! Images and used it in my project later just to find out that it had been deleted
 Christina Leonard

! from it’s source. I clicked the “full size image” link, and this is the link I was

! directed to. It was originally posted on Facebook.

SketchUp Skateboarding Halfpipe

! I am unable at this time to find the link to the photo I used in my skateboarder

! speed example. I do know however that I got the image off of Google and that it

! was associated with the program SketchUp. This was one of the only pictures I

! could find of a halfpipe that was at the angle I wanted.