Horizontal Displacement
To measure horizontal displacement you would need to measure horizontally from the center of gravity at take-off to the center of gravity at landing. However, you may have noticed that since we are viewing the skater on a computer monitor, he is much smaller than in real life. Thus, the displacement you measure is not the actual real life distance of the jump, but a scaled down version of the actual distance. To convert this number to the actual real life distances you need a scale factor. Measure the distance from the skaters right hip to knee at take-off. This distance in real life is 43 cm. Divide this real life distance by your measured distance. For example, on our computer monitor the distance from the hip to knee is 1.5 cm. (in may be totally different on your computer. Calculate your own scale factor). Thus you can make a ratio:
real life distance/ measured distance = 43 cm/1.27cm = 34
This number tells you that the view of the skater on the monitor is 34 times smaller than he is in real life. To calculate your own scale factor click here to see a picture of the skater at take-off.
What is your scale factor?