The math of rock climbing

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By Carol Clark: Do you know your ape index? What’s it like to fall 40 feet down a sheer cliff face, while dangling from a rope hundreds of feet from the ground? Watch the video of Emory mathematician Skip Garibaldi describing his rock climbing experiences on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. He also explains some basic climbing math, such as the fall factor, used to reduce the risk of injury during a rope climb. “Climbing  has  a lot of  puzzles 

   Photo by Craig Clarence.                                                   Screen Shot On Linked Video

that have to be solved,” Garibaldi says. “It’s not just strength or skill. You really have to think about the different ways you can place your body.” The sport seems to attract mathematicians, he adds. “When I learned how to climb, in San Diego, Mike Freedman was a professor there. He has the Fields  Medal   for   his   work   on  the  Poincaré  conjecture,  and  he  helped

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develop the San Diego climbing scene.” One of Garibaldi’s collaborators, noted French mathematician Jean-Pierre Serre, “has bouldered at Fontainebleau, near Paris, for decades,” Garibaldi says. And mathematician John Gill, who went to high school in Atlanta, and graduated from the University of Georgia, is considered the father of modern bouldering by many climbers. Atlanta has a thriving climbing scene, Garibaldi says. Check out the Emory Rock Climbing Arena.eScienceCommons: The math of rock climbing

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