full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Arleen Sugano: The physics of the "hardest move" in ballet

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Between each turn, the dancer pauses for a spilt second and faces the audience. Her supporting foot flattens, and then twists as it rises back onto pointe, psnhiug against the folor to generate a tiny amnout of new torque. At the same time, her arms sweep open to help her keep her blanace. The turns are most effective if her center of gravity stays cnonastt, and a skilled dancer will be able to keep her trninug axis vteracil.

The extended arms and torque-generating foot both help dvire the fouetté. But the real secret and the reason you hardly notice the pause is that her other leg never stops moving. During her momentary pause, the dancer's etealved leg straightens and moves from the front to the side, before it folds back into her knee. By staying in mtooin, that leg is storing some of the momentum of the turn. When the leg comes back in towards the body, that stored momentum gets transferred back to the dancer's body, propelling her around as she rises back onto pointe. As the ballerina extends and rectatrs her leg with each turn, momentum travels back and forth between leg and body, keeping her in motion.

Open Cloze


Between each turn, the dancer pauses for a _____ second and faces the audience. Her supporting foot flattens, and then twists as it rises back onto pointe, _______ against the _____ to generate a tiny ______ of new torque. At the same time, her arms sweep open to help her keep her _______. The turns are most effective if her center of gravity stays ________, and a skilled dancer will be able to keep her _______ axis ________.

The extended arms and torque-generating foot both help _____ the fouetté. But the real secret and the reason you hardly notice the pause is that her other leg never stops moving. During her momentary pause, the dancer's ________ leg straightens and moves from the front to the side, before it folds back into her knee. By staying in ______, that leg is storing some of the momentum of the turn. When the leg comes back in towards the body, that stored momentum gets transferred back to the dancer's body, propelling her around as she rises back onto pointe. As the ballerina extends and ________ her leg with each turn, momentum travels back and forth between leg and body, keeping her in motion.

Solution


  1. pushing
  2. balance
  3. constant
  4. split
  5. retracts
  6. motion
  7. elevated
  8. drive
  9. floor
  10. amount
  11. vertical
  12. turning

Original Text


Between each turn, the dancer pauses for a split second and faces the audience. Her supporting foot flattens, and then twists as it rises back onto pointe, pushing against the floor to generate a tiny amount of new torque. At the same time, her arms sweep open to help her keep her balance. The turns are most effective if her center of gravity stays constant, and a skilled dancer will be able to keep her turning axis vertical.

The extended arms and torque-generating foot both help drive the fouetté. But the real secret and the reason you hardly notice the pause is that her other leg never stops moving. During her momentary pause, the dancer's elevated leg straightens and moves from the front to the side, before it folds back into her knee. By staying in motion, that leg is storing some of the momentum of the turn. When the leg comes back in towards the body, that stored momentum gets transferred back to the dancer's body, propelling her around as she rises back onto pointe. As the ballerina extends and retracts her leg with each turn, momentum travels back and forth between leg and body, keeping her in motion.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
angular momentum 3
rotational inertia 3
black swan 2
stored momentum 2


Important Words


  1. amount
  2. arms
  3. audience
  4. axis
  5. balance
  6. ballerina
  7. body
  8. center
  9. constant
  10. dancer
  11. drive
  12. effective
  13. elevated
  14. extended
  15. extends
  16. faces
  17. flattens
  18. floor
  19. folds
  20. foot
  21. fouetté
  22. front
  23. generate
  24. gravity
  25. keeping
  26. knee
  27. leg
  28. momentary
  29. momentum
  30. motion
  31. moves
  32. moving
  33. notice
  34. open
  35. pause
  36. pauses
  37. pointe
  38. propelling
  39. pushing
  40. real
  41. reason
  42. retracts
  43. rises
  44. secret
  45. side
  46. skilled
  47. split
  48. staying
  49. stays
  50. stops
  51. stored
  52. storing
  53. straightens
  54. supporting
  55. sweep
  56. time
  57. tiny
  58. torque
  59. transferred
  60. travels
  61. turn
  62. turning
  63. turns
  64. twists
  65. vertical