Science Project on the Force of Football Hits
Tackle football is a rough sport. Even though players wear protective gear, they are still hitting each other with a tremendous amount of force. If you are looking for a science project with applications to medicine, then studying the force of football hits can yield some interesting ideas.
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Topic
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The first step in designing your science project on the force of football hits is to select a specific question you want to investigate. This could be a comparison of how hard players at differing levels of football play hit each other, examining how hard a particular population of football players hit each other in light of what forces produce brain injury, looking for patterns in how hard football players hit at different times in the season, or any other question that interests you on the topic.
Population
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In order to collect data, you are going to need access to football players. If you want to learn about how hard recreational players hit, then you are going to need access to recreational football players. The same goes for high school, college or even professional athletes. The population of football players you can get to participate in your experiment will serve as a limiting factor on what kinds of questions you can ask for your project.
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Equipment
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To measure the strength of football hits, you are going to need access to a force gauge: an instrument that can measure the force of an impact. While the National Football League (NFL) has access to very expensive equipment that can embed itself in the player's equipment and transmit data wirelessly, this is beyond the reach of most students. You will consequently have to devise a way to measure football hits with more basic equipment. One idea is to place the force gauge behind the pads of the grid irons, large people-shaped pads attached to a large metal structure to ground the pads against hits, and gather data as players practice their hits on the grid irons.
Outside Data
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Depending on the question you ask, you may have to collect some outside data for your science project. For example, if you are examining how the force with which the different populations you studied hit compares with the force that causes brain injury, you will need to seek out information on what effect different forces have on the brain. For the sake of scientific rigor, it is a good idea to gather such data from multiple sources so that you can either confirm that there is a consensus on the numbers you are using, or if the necessary data varies you can use averages for your data analysis.
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References
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