Science!

Snake hips, good core strength and a willingness to look slightly ridiculous all come in helpful for those wishing to master the art of hula hooping. Now scientists have concluded that an hourglass figure may also be advantageous.

The study, involving gyrating robotic figures of various dimensions, suggests a narrow waist and large hips are optimal for keeping a hoop spinning in a stable position. But those with less curvy physiques may be able to compensate by making larger hip movements at a faster pace, the analysis concluded.

“You need to throw the hoop sufficiently fast as your initial condition. You also need sufficient curvature of the body. You also need a sufficiently sloped body,” said Olivia Pomerenk, a PhD candidate at New York University and co-author of the analysis.


The paper is the culmination of about five years of research by applied mathematicians at New York University, who began investigating because “there’s such a fundamental question about how the hoop actually stays up”.

“It seems as though your body is only pushing the hoop outwards, you can’t immediately understand what is holding it up,” said Pomerenk, who joined the project more recently. “It’s a seemingly simple system, but actually involves quite intricate maths.”

To tackle this mystery, the researchers 3D printed a series of plastic shapes: cylinders, cones and hourglass-like figures (hyperboloids) with varying slopes and curvatures. “A cylinder has no slope and no curvature. A cone has slope but no curvature – it is angled but it’s a flat line,” said Pomerenk. An hourglass has both slope and curvature.…..

https://www.theguardian.com/science...la-hooping-study-finds?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other