Helpful Handicap

Quirk writes "National Geographic has an interesting article connecting the Olympics of ancient Greece with the modern principles of physics. The ancient Greeks used hand weights called halteres held in each hand when attempting the Olympic contest of the standing long-jump. The idea of hand held weights in the long-jump might at first seem counterintuitive but the idea is scientifically sound and was supposedly first fairly accurately explained by no less a person than Aristotle, the father of syllogistic logic."