Math Mad
Q: Purvis, why do skateboarding spin moves have names like 180's or 360's?
–Traci M.
A: Devon, I hope my answer won't make your head spin!
You've probably seen athletes like skateboarders, snowboarders, in-line skaters, and bicyclists do tricks where they spin around in circles. These tricks have names like 180's and 540's. Why?
In math, we say that a circle has 360
degrees, 360 tiny
angles of equal measure, coming from its center point. (And every week, I eat 360 circular donuts!) Each of those angles measures 1 degree.
This way of looking at circles dates back to around 2400
B.C. That's when ancient Sumerians started tracking the days of the year based on how long it took the sun to circle the earth. They thought it took 360 days, so they marked each day as a degree on a circle. Now we know it takes more like 365 days for the sun to circle Earth. But the 360-degree
circle is still used today!
When a skateboarder like Tony Hawk does a "360," he's turning 360 degrees—or, in other words, he's spinning around in a complete circle. If he spins only halfway around a circle, that's a "180" (because 180 is half of 360). Lots of tricks are named based on how many degrees the athlete spins. For example, a "corked 720" is when a snowboarder spins around 2 complete times while his or her body is sideways in the air. In in-line skating, a "misty flip" is a 540-degree spin combined with a somersault.
This piggy's favorite trick? The 360-degree dunk—that's when I spin around once, then dunk my cookie into my chocolate milk!
One Pig Problem!
On June 28, 1999, Tony Hawk completed the first 900-degree trick in skateboarding history! How many times did Hawk turn around?
Click here for the answer to this week's Ask Purvis Question!
See you around,
Purvis
