The Advantage of Standing Up to Fight and the Evolution of Habitual Bipedalism in Hominins
Figure 3
Sample recording of the energy delivered in maximum effort downward and upward directed strikes.
Contact with the transducer was made at time zero. The force of the strike caused the pendulum to swing upward. Maximum potential energy occurred at the peak of the curve. Maximum kinetic energy occurred as the pendulum swung back to the bottom of its arch at 0 radians. To calculate the maximum kinetic energy of the pendulum, the angular velocity (ω) of the pendulum was measured as it swung through the bottom of its arc, over an angular displacement of +0.20 to −0.20 radians, indicated by the horizontal grey lines.