What Makes Ice a Skatable Surface?

[PhysicsFan]

I maintain a blog where I write about physics for a general audience, and I wanted to let everyone know about my latest entry, which is on the physics of figure skating. With the Opening Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics only a week away, I thought it might be fun to collect links related to the physics of the sports being contested. In my write-up, I link to some other physics of figure skating sites, as well.

http://watered-down-physics.blogspot.com

 

[joelperr]

Well, nearly anything that figure skaters do (of interest, anyways) relates to the conservation of angular momentum... If you look that up, you'll find lots of examples.

 

[Mk]

Fan, I think you need to copy and paste over the code for the blogger bar at the top of the site, its not showing up right, for me.

 

[PhysicsFan]

To supplement my figure-skating write-up, I've now added a collection of links on the physics of other Winter Olympic sports, such as luge, hockey, and skiing.

I hope that my webpage shows up properly for most of you. It looks OK to me. I know that on different browsers and different computers, things can look different, however.

 

[Blondie23]

Fan, you've really helped me with finding how math is used in figure skating. Thanks for helping!

 

[Mk]

Oh it works good for me now.

But I can't comment I have an RSS button you might like I made myself. I can send you the code.

 

[PhysicsFan]

Today's New York Times has an article on the question of why ice is a skatable surface.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/science/21ice.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
(registration required)