The Physical Science of Rodeo?

Question

I have to do a project on the physical science of rodeo. I'm in eighth grade and am doing this for Science. I could use any information or physical laws or anything that could possibly help me. Links to helpful sites would rock. Any information would be totally appreciated. Thanks!

It's Bull riding by the way.

Answer 1

The Newtonian Laws of Motion are in full effect at a rodeo. List these laws watch a rodeo and observe, hypothesise, and draw conclusions.
Do it.

Answer 2

WHICH rodeo event? There are quite a few.

The one that is most interesting from a physical science stand point is bull riding.

The basic idea is the bull is trying to throw the rider off, the rider is trying to stay on for 8 seconds. The bull can move in three dimensions and in a number of different motions.

The bull can go up, down, side to side and rotate left or right. It can also twist however that is limited as the bull does want to stay on its feet. (Imagine the excitement if a bull ever figures out all it has to do is roll over to dislodge the rider!)
It can do a combination of all four at the same time and add to all that, forward motion around the corral.

The stronger and bigger the bull, the more motion it can generate, both in distance and in speed. The stronger the rider proportional to his size, the better he can compensate for the motions of the bull. Also, some bulls are noted to use particular motions to dislodge a rider and with that knowledge the rider can anticipate the motions and be "ahead" of the bull in his actions. The most dangerous bulls are those that do not have a predictable pattern, are big, fast, strong and tend to stay hear the fence.

A website that talks about rodeo physics is below.

As far as the other events, they each have physics involved also but they are far less dramatic than bull riding.