ELI5- What the Sports Science terms Muscular Strength, Muscular Force, Muscular Power, & Muscular Velocity mean as distinguished from the formal physics definitions of velocity, power, and force
In: Physics
They are the same concepts essentially. The ones with muscular in front of them are specifying that the values are what a muscle is capable of.
muscular force is how much force can a muscle manage in a movement (e.g. a contraction). In physics, force is an influence of some kind to change the velocity of something. Force is pushing and pulling on an object, which is what muscles are doing, but in biology the generation of the force is more limited.
Muscular velocity is how fast the muscle is able to change length (where which way the length is going is like the direction). In physics velocity is a speed with a particular direction.
Muscle power is still a combination of the velocity and force. Where power is a measure describing that as you try to push or pull something, you move it a particular distance over time (rate of work).
The catch about power is that force and velocity tend to be opposites. You might think of someone pushing a big wheel across a field. It might take longer and more force. However, if that person then pushes a giant balloon, it’s going to be much faster and require less force. The result could be similar power since as one goes up and one goes down. But if you can optimize the velocity and force for a task, then the muscle power can be higher.
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