RE: New work on running biomech by Hutchinson

["Thomas R. Holtz, Jr." <tholtz@geol.umd.edu>]

> From: owner-dinosaur@usc.edu [mailto:owner-dinosaur@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> Jaime A. Headden
>
>   He also wanted to know what the Froude number is, and how it's
> calculated:
>
>   http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/FroudeNumber.html will help out,
> I am sure.
>

For the purposes here, Froude number is Fr = v2/gh, where v is the forward
velocity, g the acceleration due to gravity, and h the hip height. Based on
R. McNeill Alexander's work, Animals moving with the same Fr have similar
gaits and exert similar relative ground reaction forces.

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
                Vertebrate Paleontologist
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
                College Park, MD  20742
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/tholtz.htm
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/eltsite
Phone:  301-405-4084    Email:  tholtz@geol.umd.edu
Fax (Geol):  301-314-9661       Fax (CPS-ELT): 301-405-0796