All About Velocity: Physicist Explains Who Would Win in a Race Between Usain Bolt and a Dinosaur

© REUTERS / Lucy Nicholson2016 Rio Olympics - Athletics - Final - Men's 200m Final - Olympic Stadium - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 18/08/2016. Usain Bolt (JAM) of Jamaica poses after winning the gold
2016 Rio Olympics - Athletics - Final - Men's 200m Final - Olympic Stadium - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 18/08/2016. Usain Bolt (JAM) of Jamaica poses after winning the gold - Sputnik International, 1920, 08.03.2022
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The factors that would apparently affect the outcome of this hypothetical race are the difference in size and initial acceleration between the participants.
A physicist from University of Toledo named Scott Lee has come up with a curious exercise where students would try and determine who would win a 100-meter race – legendary Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt or Dilophosaurus wetherilli, a poison-spitting dinosaur that was featured in the 1993 film classic “Jurassic Park”.
Spoiler: Usain Bolt would win.
As Lee explains in The Physics Teacher journal, the Dilophosaurus’ top speed is estimated at about 10.5 meters per second, which is “about the same” as the average velocity of Bolt when he set the world record for 100-meter sprint at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin in 2009.
However, Lee’s and his students’ calculations show that the dinosaur’s initial acceleration is much lower than that of Bolt, as Ars Technica puts it.
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Also, the difference in size between the dinosaur and Bolt, with the latter being smaller than the prehistoric reptile, would afford the man "a sufficiently large early advantage to ensure that Dilophosaurus couldn't catch up".
"The fact that the average velocity of Usain Bolt over the 100-m race matches the maximum velocity of Dilophosaurus means that Usain Bolt will win the race," the physicist surmised.
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