So far all the explanations I’ve seen have basically just said, “cause physics”.
In: Physics
I’m gonna go and use the example of ice skating. Now if you’re going in a straight line theres very little force acting on you and without any effort on your part you’ll go on a long way as long as your skates are sharp (this is called momentum) but if they’re blunt then theres going to be resistance in the form of friction.
Let’s assume they are sharp. Then the force that’s acting on you is air resistance. Well the larger your profile the more air resistance the less force acting your momentum. Tucking in achieves this but that’s not the whole story.
If you hold a string with a ball attached to it and spin it around by spinning around then as you lengthen the string the more effort required to keep the ball spinning at the same speed. This is because centrifugal force. Instead of spinning the ball is pushed further away from you like a hammer thrower. Bring it in and theres less centrifugal force meaning that for the same effort you can go faster. Again this is what Tucking in achieves.
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