{"id":203010,"date":"2025-01-03T05:06:59","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T11:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/how-does-a-hula-hoop-master-gravity-mathematicians-prove-that-body-shape-matters"},"modified":"2025-01-03T05:06:59","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T11:06:59","slug":"how-does-a-hula-hoop-master-gravity-mathematicians-prove-that-body-shape-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/how-does-a-hula-hoop-master-gravity-mathematicians-prove-that-body-shape-matters","title":{"rendered":"How does a hula hoop master gravity? Mathematicians prove that body shape matters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/how-does-a-hula-hoop-master-gravity-mathematicians-prove-that-body-shape-matters3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hula hooping is so commonplace that we may overlook some interesting questions it raises: \u201cWhat keeps a hula hoop up against gravity?\u201d and \u201cAre some body types better for hula hooping than others?\u201d A team of mathematicians explored and answered these questions with findings that also point to new ways to better harness energy and improve robotic positioners.<\/p>\n<p>The results are the first to explain the physics and mathematics of hula hooping.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were specifically interested in what kinds of body motions and shapes could successfully hold the hoop up and what physical requirements and restrictions are involved,\u201d explains Leif Ristroph, an associate professor at New York University\u2019s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and the senior author of the paper, which <a href=\"https:\/\/pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2411588121\" target=\"_blank\">appears<\/a> in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hula hooping is so commonplace that we may overlook some interesting questions it raises: \u201cWhat keeps a hula hoop up against gravity?\u201d and \u201cAre some body types better for hula hooping than others?\u201d A team of mathematicians explored and answered these questions with findings that also point to new ways to better harness energy and [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2229,219,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mathematics","category-physics","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203010\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}