Equipment
The game
of football invole alot of forces many of which are very high.
one way that football players and organizations have increased the
safety and decreased injuries is by improving the gear that a football
player wears.
A tackle with half
a ton of force sounds like a crippling
blow. But, the body can
handle twice that amount, as long as the impact is well-distributed.
That job is handled by the player's equipment, which spreads out the
incoming
energy, lessening its severity.
Shoulder-pad plastic hasn't changed much, but it is
now molded into designs with more right angles to deflect impacts.
Players also
rely on the helmet's solid shell and face mask to redistribute the
energy of a
collision.
During
a tackle, foam padding beneath the plastic components of
equipment compresses, absorbing energy and reducing the speed of
impact. (The
slower a hit, the less force it generates.) Visco elastic foam, which
was
invented by NASA to protect astronauts from g-forces during liftoff,
retains
its shape better than conventional foam, rebounding rapidly after hits.
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