What forces do a pole vaulter and pole apply in order to clear the bar.?

Answer 1

The pole vaulter must use enough force pushing down on the pole so that the pole will bend, and when it snaps back to position, will raise the pole vaulter.

Answer 2

Interesting question. It's a real study in physics.

Pole vaulting is a wonderful illustration of how one type of energy is converted to another type of energy. Through the proper use of the pole vault, the energy of motion associated with the sprint is converted into the energy needed to overcome gravity and reach a certain height. The energy of motion is called "kinetic energy," while the energy associated with working against gravity is called "gravitational potential energy." The faster you can sprint toward the bar, the higher you can vault over the bar, again assuming a proper technique.

Pole vaulting is also a great example of the central principle in physics: the conservation of energy.

The conservation of energy says that energy can never be created or destroyed; it can only be converted from one form to another. When you pole vault, what you ideally want is to convert all of your kinetic energy into gravitational potential energy. In the real world, you can never get a 100 percent conversion because some of the kinetic energy gets converted into other kinds of energy, such as heat, friction, sound, and vibrations of the pole itself. Nevertheless, the "ideal case" gives you a good idea of how high you could jump.

In order to determine how high you could theoretically jump, you must know your sprint speed and how tall you are. Again, this assumes that all your energy of motion (kinetic energy) is converted into the "gravitational potential energy" of the jump height.

Answer 3

simplistically...forward momentum and stored / released energy in the pole for lift and height