Drink milk

I found this little tidbit in a recent edition of USA Roller Sports magazine. I love chocolate milk.

That is all.

Bacteria Move in Derby Direction - Swim Fast, Turn Left!

Track Explained Tee from BruisedBoutique.com

A while back, Mathundra Storm wrote a great post on the Times Union Roller Derby Blog about why we skate counter-clockwise. Doc Bi O'Hazard (she's a real life scientist!) recently sent me a this article about microoganisms which swim in the counter-clockwise direction (further adding to Mathundra's list.

The article, from Science News, is called Like NASCAR Drivers, Microbes Forced to Circle Forever to the Left (or when Doc read it, Like Derby Girls,  Microbes Forced to Circle Forever to the Left).  I read the article a few times (actually about ten times) before I began to understand it. Sharing it now with all you science-y peeps out there. Hooray for thinking of roller derby in unlikely places!

Roll Around the World

http://www.wayfaring.com/maps/show/62752

Check out this webpage that I recently came across. Someone (wayfaring user futurnovelis556) put together a map of all (?) the roller derby leagues in the world. I say "?" because I am not sure when this was created or last updated, but it includes the Hellions of Troy! And check out how many leagues there are in New York and the Northeast! I guess you can say, we're on the map!

Hellions + Starcraft 2

Mr. T plays a fair amount of Starcraft 2, and every once in a while I'll hear him talking about Hellions over Skype with his SC2 pals. How cute that he's talking about derby!

Hmph, not really the case. A hellion is some sort of unit in the game.  I looked it up on a Starcraft 2 wiki, and this is what I found out:

Source: Starcraft 2 Wiki

"...The hellion is a high-speed raider built around a lightweight four-wheel chassis. Hellions are capable of causing damage disproportionate to their size, particularly against enemy infantry, thanks to their heavy infernal flamethrowers. Additionally, their remarkable acceleration allows for improvisational tactics in the field. Some hellion drivers will deliberately outrun their enemies only to turn and attack when they have reached maximum range."  - Starcraft 2 Wiki

Sweet! I'm sure the game designers had our team in mind when they developed the unit. But please, no SC2 geeks commenting saying anything otherwise (Mr. T just gave me a lecture on their actual capabilities/usefulness in the game). If it's in the wiki it must be true!

Next Home Bout: Saturday, July 24

With our three away bouts behind us, we are rolling into our home season.  Check out the poster for our next bout, coming up in July against the ManchVegas Roller Girls from Manchester, NH!

Hope to see you there!  Afraid you'll forget?  Here's the facebook invitation.

Be there or be a four-sided regular polygon!

25 in 5 - aka, roller derby physics

Besides roller derby, physics is one of my other casual hobbies. Today I ask the question:

How fast do you need to skate in order to complete 25 laps in five minutes?

The circumference of a WFTDA regulation track is:

148.5 feet on the inside

236.5 feet on the outside.

For my calculations, I took the average of these numbers: 192.5 feet.

The number of feet in a mile is 5,280. The number of laps in one mile is (5,280 ft /192.5 ft) = 27.4 laps.

25 laps is equal to 0.91 miles (25 laps /27.4 laps).

Therefore, the skater must travel 0.91 miles in 5 minutes.

We all know that velocity is distance divided by time.

5 minutes is equal to 0.083 hours (5 minutes / 60 minutes).

Therefore, a skater must travel 0.91 miles in 0.083 hours.

0.91 miles / 0.083 hours = 10.9 miles per hour.

∴ In order to skate 25 laps in 5 minutes, a skater must travel at an average velocity of 10.9 miles per hour.

Many girls on the team can skate over 25 laps. My personal record is 31. Looking at our team's time trial data, it looks like the maximum number anyone has done (recently) is 34. MPH equivalents for other laps below:

# of laps -- MPH

25 ---------- 10.9
26 ---------- 11.4

27 ---------- 11.8
28 ---------- 12.3
29 ---------- 12.7
30 ---------- 13.1
31 ---------- 13.6
34 ---------- 14.9

**Please note these are just quick and dirty calculations. If any other super nerds want to add to or continue this conversation, leave a comment!