Physicist explores if Usain Bolt can outrun a dinosaur

By Joe Morgan via SWNS

Just in case you wondered whether the world's fastest sprinter could outrun a dinosaur, a physicist has worked it out.

Although humans and dinosaurs never shared the planet it piqued the curiosity of a professor.

Setting the task for his students, Prof. Scott Lee asked them to work out whether Usain Bolt at his finest would be able to outrun a dinosaur in a 100-meter race.

For the dinosaur, they chose Dilophosaurus, depicted in the classic movie "Jurassic Park."

Unlike its screen portrayal, the 900-pound dino did not have a large rattling neck frill or the ability to spit venom.

They pitted it against Jamaica’s eight-time Olympic gold medallist, who retired in 2017 still boasting the title of fastest human alive.

Bolt ran the 100 meters in 9.58 seconds, which maxes out at about 27 miles per hour.

Prof Lee, from the University of Toledo , created the exercise to ask students to determine whether Bolt would have more luck outrunning the dino than the villainous DNA thief in a yellow raincoat who ended up as dinner in the film.

Considering Newton's second law, where acceleration is determined by a combination of mass and force, gives Bolt an early advantage for being smaller.

In the end, Bolt would leave Dilophosaurus in the dust and win by two seconds.

Prof Lee said: "The maximum running speeds of the other dinosaurs were significantly different from Usain Bolt's average speed and, therefore, would not make an interesting race.

"Sadly, the more famous Tyrannosaurus rex is believed to have been slower than Usain Bolt."

But while Bolt may be faster than many dinosaurs, his top speed is still just under the fastest speed of a house cat.

The study was published in the journal The Physics Teacher.