The Physics of Karate

(Image credit: Lance Cpl. James B. Hoke/Wikimedia Commons)

You have probably seen videos of karate masters breaking blocks of wood or cement with their bare hands. Some even use their foreheads. But why doesn't it break people's hands?

A team of physicists decided to investigate what the secret of karate was. So, they designed a model to determine how much force it takes to break wood and concrete.

Luckily, two of the physicists, Michael Feld and Ronald McNair, were a brown belt and fifth-degree black belt in karate respectively, so they have an idea about how it works. They explain the physics of karate in a paper published in 1979.

Here's a demonstration by Michael Feld in class as he taught the physics of karate.