physics

RowPerfect

RowPerfect is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand RowPerfect rather than just read about it. In short: The Rowperfect is an indoor rowing machine, designed in 1987 and patented in 1988, by Casper (Cas) Rekers. It is designed to accurately simulate the feeling of rowing on the water.

Key takeaways

RowPerfect belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect RowPerfect to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of RowPerfect from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Rowperfect is an indoor rowing machine, designed in 1987 and patented in 1988, by Casper (Cas) Rekers. It is designed to accurately simulate the feeling of rowing on the water. Both the flywheel and the seat are free to move on a slide — this is different from the majority of rowing machines, where the flywheel is fixed and only the seat moves. Its mass and movement are balanced and engineered to enable rowing technique to be learned and refined. This is called a "floating head" rowing simulator: the fixed flywheel type is called a "fixed head" ergometer. The result is that the flywheel moves towards the rower on the recovery, mimicking the on-water experience of the boat moving under the rower more accurately. The Rowperfect is also unusual in offering a limited tilt seat, which compels the rower to control their weight distribution during the power stroke and recovery. It is considered to be a useful aide to teaching rowing.

Manufacture Two versions of the successor to the original Rowperfect exist that are made by: Care RP3 in the Netherlands and Rowperfect Pty in Australia. Both versions are able to hook up to dedicated software independently developed and marketed by Row-Ware, including SEAN. Rowperfect Pty Ltd. bought Rowperfect BV in 2004 moving development and production to Australia, developing the lowered flywheel position of the Indoor Sculler during that process. Rowperfect Pty Ltd holds US Patent 8,608,626 covering the lowered flywheel position on the moving mainframe. After multiple prototypes (the first produced in January 2005) the first Indoor Sculler was produced in June 2008. The Dutch company produced its rowing machine, the RP3, from June 2009. Rowperfect Pty Ltd builds the Indoor Sculler, which has a specialised monitor readouts of output power, time, rating, meters distance per stroke, heartrate, power per heartbeat, stroke length. Outputs are calibrated to athlete weight and boat class and give readings aligned to on-water times for skilled athletes. The Indoor Sculler was intensively tested on the domestic market in Australia prior to export to North America, South Africa and Europe. The Rowperfect Indoor Sculler contains 18 kg of solid stainless steel. The bar, legs and seat base are all solid stainless steel, as are all internal axles and fittings in the moving main frame. By using lightweight materials such as Aluminium and ABS Plastic, the dynamic mainframe of the Indoor Sculler is specifically manufactured to the target weight of 17 kg, replicating the mass per rower (including oars/sculls) of Single, Double and Quad sculling boats as well as the Coxless Pair and the Coxless Four (note: an eight has a 19 kg per-rower mass). Care RP3 builds the RP3 Computer software shows a force curve, joules, stroke length, stroke rate as well as time, rating, 500 m split and meters. Weight adjusted scores and rowing boat class selection enable coaches to assess likely on-water times for crews based on the computer readouts. Used by Olympic athletes in both sculling and sweep disciplines including Mahé Drysdale, Alan Campbell and crews from US Rowing and New Zealand. Both machines led rival manufacturers to develop dynamic indoor rowing machines during 2010 leading to a change in perception and adoption.

Users and coaches Harry Mahon was the first international rowing coach to use Rowperfect widely with his crews. Greg Searle's force curve is illustrated in The Sport of Rowing Book. Further force curves Harry developed for coaches to download and use. USRowing adopted the RP3 as one of their training tools during Timothy McLaren's tenure as head coach. Since that time, the University of Washington crews have used RP and dominated the Intercollegiate Rowing Association championship regatta. Harvard University rowing crews recently acquired RPs under Charlie Butt's coaching direction. Other known international users since 2012 include Rowing New Zealand, Dansk Forening for Rosport, Royal Dutch Rowing Federation, British Rowing coach, Robin Williams.

References

External links Rowperfect Indoor Sculler manufacturer and list of vendors for Australia, Canada, South Africa

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with RowPerfect

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what RowPerfect claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to RowPerfect before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about RowPerfect ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of RowPerfect

In research: RowPerfect appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses RowPerfect in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: RowPerfect is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Exercise equipment, Rowing equipment manufacturers, Sports biomechanics, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for RowPerfect outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study RowPerfect in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what RowPerfect means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain RowPerfect out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is RowPerfect in simple terms?

The Rowperfect is an indoor rowing machine, designed in 1987 and patented in 1988, by Casper (Cas) Rekers. It is designed to accurately simulate the feeling of rowing on the water.

Why does RowPerfect matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study RowPerfect?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on RowPerfect.