VIDEO: The Science of Why Belly Flops Hurt
VIDEO: The Science of Why Belly Flops Hurt
Any swimmer (or diver) who has ever done a belly flop has wondered the same thing: how can a liquid like water feel so solid?\
Sure, maybe it’s not the first question you ask yourself. (That honor would go to “Why did I do that?” or “How long will my body feel like it’s on fire?”). But it always feels like mystery how water can feel so soft as you swim through it, but so solid when you land on it like a sack of potatoes.
For anyone still curious on the subject, Norwegian broadcasting company NRK has some answers, laid out in the short video above. That video comes to us courtesy of NRK’s YouTube page.
The writing onscreen is all in Norwegian, naturally, but if you turn on YouTube’s closed captions, you can get a pretty solid translation of the factors involved.
Here’s a quick transcript of the translated notes:
