Seek and Geek 7: Crowdsurfers

I was at a concert when I remembered that I hadn’t chosen a Seek and Geek for the week yet.
And what better a place to draw inspiration than music and people.

Now, concerts are definitely a workout. One specific aspect of the workout is lifting (or
catching) crowd surfers. Let’s say the average concert goer who crowd surfs weighs 65 kg. We’ll
center the weight on the torso and say that the important surface area is the torso/butt region
– so 0.5 x 0.4 m. The extremities are only held to prevent inattentive concert goers from being
hit in the head, so they’ll be ignored in this study.

Upon careful observation, due to space constraints, typically only 3 people (red) are directly
under the crowd surfer, but as many as 6 other helpers (purple) can assist from the sides, I’ve
outlined the system in Figure 1 with the black box being the crowd surfer. Based on my
previous experience in a restaurant, while required to be able to lift 22 kg, the average worker
could really only lift ~13 kg. So, let’s say the 3 people directly under the crowd surfer can each
hold 13 kg, that leaves 26 kg left. Let’s assume the 6 helpers are using both hands (not often the
case) and are equally spaced.
Referring to Figure 2, the
calculated angle of the helper’s
arm is ~ 45 degrees. This means, as
a collective, the helpers can
support 55 kg. If this were the
case, one or two red person(s)
wouldn’t even be needed! This is
partially true in practice, because
sometimes the red person(s) is a
small concertgoer who ducks/hides
instead of helping support the
crowd surfer.

Lettiere Seek and Geek #7

2.77
Unfortunately, sometimes, an overexcited group (red and purple people) throw the crowd
surfer into the air (~0.6 m) to push them to the front quicker. If they’re thrown ~ 0.6m into the
air, they come down with a velocity of ~3.5 m/s (potential energy to kinetic energy). [Note:
there is some kinetic energy associated with motion forward, but I’m assuming that’s
negligible] Now, we conserve the momentum and assume we give the alert concert goers 1 s to
catch the crowd surfer:
𝑚𝑣
𝐹=
Δ𝑡
The resulting force would be ~ 220 N, basically an extra 22 kg that the red and purple concert
goers need to support. Now that’s not very nice.

Referring again to excited people, at the concert the bassist took a stage dive and crowd surfed
amongst the fans. I wondered if this resulted in more force to catch him for the fans at the front
(assisted by the security if needed) than when an overexcited group of people throw a crowd
surfer. This model is similar to the one above, but now the crowd surfer has both significant
kinetic energy and potential energy. Now, he didn’t have a long distance to build up speed, so
let’s say he’s running at 3 m/s and jumps 0.3 m above the concert goer. Based on the previous
calculation, the increase in weigh would be less than the thrown crowd surfer, but there is an
additional force in the tangential direction ~ 200 N. This force in the tangential direction can be
felt in the crowd as the concert goers shift their weight to maintain balance while catching the
bassist.

If a crowd surfer falls and is hurt, they need to leave the area as quickly as possible – and that’s
over the barricade. The barricade is ~1.2 m tall and the “easiest” way to get out is for the
security to lift the person up. When doing this, the security asks the crowd surfer to jump up (if
possible). This reduced the distance the security has to lift the person and provides momentum
to reduce the effort of the security guard. Let’s say the person can jump 0.3 m in the air, this
can be approximated as 2.5 m/s of initial velocity. Assuming the security is quick, let’s give him
1.5 s, he can reduce his load by ~ 100 N.

Lettiere Seek and Geek #7

2.77