The physics of kiiking, Estonia's extreme sport of swinging
When an athlete swings upside down atop a 7-meter (23-foot) pendulum, it may seem like a feat of strength, courage or technique. A new study suggests it is something more fundamental: a striking demonstration of how intelligence emerges from the interaction of brain, body and environment.
Kiiking, an extreme sport invented in Estonia, has been analyzed by Harvard researchers who have found that it demonstrates a fundamental aspect of intelligence emerging from the interaction of brain, body, and environment. The sport involves swinging on a 7-meter pendulum, and the study published in the Journal of Nonlinear Science reveals that the athlete's ability to successfully complete a full rotation is not merely a display of strength or technique, but a result of exploiting the dynamics of the environment.
The researchers used mathematics, physics, and control theory to analyze the sport, finding that the optimal strategy involves standing near the bottom of the trajectory and squatting near the turning points, which alters the effective length of the pendulum and transfers energy into the system with maximum efficiency. This principle of cooperation between the athlete and the environment extends beyond kiiking to other areas such as neuroscience, robotics, biology, and human performance.
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