Double Royal PikeRita ChristiansonAward: Top 100
School: sitka high school This is a photo of one of my friend's mid drop, she has wrapped herself up in an apparatus called an aerial silk and dropped herself from around 15-20 feet in the air. Aerial is a physics heavy activity, and one of the most important factors in dangerous moves like this is friction. With the force of gravity constantly trying to pull an aerialist down, friction and applied force must be used to counter. Because of this, aerialists footwear is incredibly relevant. It is rare to see aerialists wearing socks while in the air, this is due to the reduced friction coefficient. Most prefer to go barefoot due to the high friction between the silk and skin. My friend in the photo here is wearing socks, but that is because she used knee climbs, compensating for her legging material with muscular applied force. Another huge factor in what an aerialist can do is their vestibular system. The fluid in the inner ear that tells the brain what direction the body is in. The fluid will continue to move even as the body finishes spinning due to the fluid's inertia. Because of this, the brain will read as still spinning after a drop is finished while the aerialist's eyes see an upright, stationary room. This disconnect is what causes the dizzy feeling, and how long it lasts all depends on how acclimated to spin an aerialist's vestibular system is, thus how quickly it can realign. 
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