Well, a really experienced vaulter could most likely shatter a pole at their weight rating or even slightly above.
To do with e=mc2... you need to look behind the formula, into what's inside nuclear physics. (I love this, we're talking about pole vaulting and nuclear physics all in the same thread!) Let's look at just the 'squared' part of the equation. Do any of you know what that really is getting at? A long time ago, there was a brilliant woman, I think she was French (I can't remember her name and I'm too lazy to go look it up...) who made an outrageous statement. She said that if one dropped a ball from height x, then the same ball from 2x, that the force of the ball when dropped from 2x would be the square of the force of the ball from height x. In other, more modern words, if you drove your car at 20 mph, then slammed on the brakes, you would leave a skid mark n ft long. Then, you drive your car at 40 mph and slam on the brakes again. How long will this skidmark be compared to the one at 20 mph? Not twice, but squared! (Don't go out and try this one folks!
)This works into e=mc2, and I'm sure there's a better formula to explain it, I just kind of threw it out there when I related the fact that more force is needed to make an object go faster to the 'squared' in e=mc2. So, let's now put this into pole vaulting: You bend your pole to 90 degrees, and that takes f amount of force. Now, to get the pole to bend to 45 degrees, you would need? Right, f squared amount of force! You see? And then you can tie this in with my other post about higher pole ratings and lower pole ratings.
I don't know. Maybe this is beside the point. I think that we just need an experiment: TO ANYONE WITH THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT: Try this. Take two poles of the same height and weight rating. Grab one of those large game scales (maybe this should go in the 'redneck pv' thread...) and set it to pull the pole with 50% it's weight. Repeat with the other pole. Now, pull with a set amount of force for each. For example, 100 pounds. Now measure the cord lengths of each pole.
WE
ARE GETTING TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS!