During ice ballet while in the outer rounds why do the dancers outstretched their arms and legs?
Answers
Answer:
The dancer stretches out her hands to slow down from spinning. It is based on the principle of conservation of angular momentum.
An object (the ballet dancer) rotating about an axis is the product of its momentum of inertia and its angular velocity (the speed of rotation and the orientation of the axis which the rotation takes place). The physical equation is L=Iw.
When the ballet dancer is spinning in a closed system, and no external forces are applied to it, it will have no change in angular momentum.
The conservation of angular momentum explains the angular acceleration of a ballet dancer as she brings her arms and legs close to the vertical axis of rotation. It’s the same with the spinning of an ice skater.
When the ballet dancer stretches out her arms and hands, it creates a force which slows the angular momentum