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ABSTRACT:
Hunting, by throwing projectiles, played a key role in human evolution. What makes humans so good at throwing fast? Through measurement of human throwers, computer optimization, and experiments on a throwing machine, I will show how the morphology of the human body is central to our throwing ability. The fastest way to throw is like a baseball pitcher. Driven by torques at the hip, elastic energy storage at the shoulder, and kinetic energy transfer across multiple segments, it resembles an elastically loaded whip. Our work identifies the elements of our body that make such a strategy possible.
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