What explains Usain Bolt’s speed? Track fans have been debating that question for years, and now a team of physicists from the National University of Mexico in Mexico City have created a mathematical model that helps explain how the world’s fastest man is able to bolt 100 meters in well under 9.6 seconds.
“As far as our study can reveal, he seems to be able to develop more power than other runners,” study co-author Dr. Jorge Hernandez, a professor of biophysics at the university, told The Huffington Post in an email. “A way of doing it is that he finds a way to reduce the area (cross section, as we call it) he presents to the air. Maybe adopting a running position that reduces this area, but that wouldn’t reduce his performance/ability to deploy the power he actually does.”
The researchers analyzed Bolt’s 100-meter sprint in the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, where he set a new world record at 9.58 seconds. Considering Bolt’s height (he stands six-foot, five inches), race-day conditions, and the speed he reached, the scientists calculated the amount of drag that Bolt had to overcome to set that record.
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