Treadmill calibrations

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  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,521 Member
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    Urun4me wrote: »
    I've seen people running super fast on a treadmill by getting more air with every stride. Where they would not be able to run that fast outside because part of the speed is letting the treadmill move and them coming closer to a jump than a running stride.

    Aside from fairly small effects, you should be able to run on a track just as fast as you run on a treadmill. That assertion comes from the concept of an "inertial reference frame," which just means that moving at any constant velocity is indistinguishable from any other, including zero. We have Sir Issac Newton to credit for that observation.

    (There are the caveats I listed above, such as wind resistance. I didn't mention that, on a track, you have to actually accelerate or decelerate to a new velocity, whereas on the treadmill, you don't. But, once you achieve a constant velocity, you are in an inertial reference frame and it doesn't matter if you are actually stationary or not!)
  • Urun4me
    Urun4me Posts: 37 Member
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    Jthanmyfitnesspal wrote: »
    Urun4me wrote: »
    I've seen people running super fast on a treadmill by getting more air with every stride. Where they would not be able to run that fast outside because part of the speed is letting the treadmill move and them coming closer to a jump than a running stride.

    Aside from fairly small effects, you should be able to run on a track just as fast as you run on a treadmill. That assertion comes from the concept of an "inertial reference frame," which just means that moving at any constant velocity is indistinguishable from any other, including zero. We have Sir Issac Newton to credit for that observation.

    (There are the caveats I listed above, such as wind resistance. I didn't mention that, on a track, you have to actually accelerate or decelerate to a new velocity, whereas on the treadmill, you don't. But, once you achieve a constant velocity, you are in an inertial reference frame and it doesn't matter if you are actually stationary or not!)

    Makes sense (at least as much sense as I think it's possible to make to me about physics concepts), but if someone were to jump straight up into the air with the treadmill running underneath them, then land in the exact same position the treadmill would show that they traveled a certain distance. Yet on the track they would not have traveled any distance. Though that isn't actually possible to do on a treadmill, I would think someone running and exerting more upward force than the average runner could run at a faster pace on the treadmill than on a track.
  • Jthanmyfitnesspal
    Jthanmyfitnesspal Posts: 3,521 Member
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    @Urun4me : Sir Issac Newton disagreed for the case where you're running at a constant velocity.

    It helps to imagine that, on a track, you are running inside a box that is being pulled along at the same constant velocity. Now, you run for a while and decide to leap in the air. In both cases, you will continue forward at that same constant velocity until you land.

    The point is that, when your body is at a constant velocity (including zero) there is no net force. The only reason you are working so hard is to overcome the resistance of your own body!
  • Urun4me
    Urun4me Posts: 37 Member
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    I will have to simply concede the point. I don't really understand it, but I think you understand the concept I was trying to get across and are still able to refute it, which is all I can ask for, not understanding physics myself. So I imagine my lay thoughts on the subject are not an actual representation of how things work.

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