You don’t have to explore much further than ice skating to witness physics in effect in the real world. The problem with traction and ice is well-known to anyone who has traveled over an icy sidewalk at some point in their life.
The fact that an ice-skating performance will consist of several leaps incorporating triple or even quadruple twists in a single jump is taken for granted by us. Executing the perfect jump necessitates a flawless level of speed, vertical velocity, force, friction, angular momentum, and, most importantly, timing.
Let’s discuss the fundamental physics concepts that underpin ice skating.
Speed
The combination of speed, vertical velocity, and angular momentum all add to the end purpose of an ice skater, which is to spend as much time in the air as possible to complete their spins (known as hang time). The rules of physics guide us in equating the height of a skater’s leap to the amount of time spent in the air.
Skaters enjoy a full second of hang time when they leap four feet, but the more common jump heights of one to two feet give them only 0.5 and 0.7 seconds to do their twists. Skiers and snowboarders, on the other hand, often have hang times of up to three seconds, providing them significantly more time to work with than riders.
A skater must sustain an average rotational speed of approximately 340 rotations per minute in order to complete a leap that includes a quadruple spin. Skaters, however, have been known to reach peak speeds of up to 440 rotations per minute. Experts have questioned whether a quintuple leap is even physically possible because it would require speeds nearing 500 rotations per minute to be performed.
Vertical Velocity
The vertical velocity of an ice skater, or the speed with which they rise into a jump, plays a role in determining how high they can jump. Their altitude, in turn, dictates the duration they have in the air before returning to the earth and thus how much time they have to perform a spin or a series of spins before landing.
Using their leg to push down on the ice, a skater can increase their vertical velocity and accelerate forward. The ice, on the other hand, pushes back, creating an upward force.
Even while the vertical velocity required to reach a specific height is the same for every skater, the force required to achieve that velocity varies depending on the weight and size of the skater, as well as the length of time the force is applied to push the skater forward.
To generate greater forces, it is necessary to have muscle strength. Skaters often throw themselves off the ice at speeds of roughly 10 miles per hour, reaching heights ranging from one to four feet in the air.
Momentum
Momentum is defined as the amount of force required to bring a moving object to a complete stop. To put it another way, the heavier the object is and the faster it is moving, the greater momentum it’ll have and the more difficult it’ill be to stop it or slow it down.
The concept of angular momentum is applied to a revolving body around a stationary object. A spinning skater’s quantity of angular momentum, for example, is determined by the speed at which it rotates, as well as the weight and distribution of mass around the center. As a result, when two skaters of the same mass rotate at the same speed, the one whose mass is more spread in space will have a higher angular momentum than the other skater.
It is a fundamental law of physics that momentum is always maintained, which means that unless an external force enters the system, the total momentum of the system must remain constant.
It is because of this law of physics that when an ice skater executes a turn, she rotates more swiftly than when she does not pull her arms in. Her mass is more evenly distributed across a larger area when she has her arms outstretched. When she brings her arms inside, the distribution of her weight is reduced, and her speed must increase to compensate for this disparity and maintain her overall momentum.
Friction
Friction is a force that causes energy to disperse. Ice skaters rely on it to start and halt their travels over the ice. For the best possible use of friction, an ice skater has two blades: one inner blade and one outer blade with a gap in the center, which are both used in tandem.
These blades are trimmed to enable skaters to maneuver themselves around tight curves and to provide additional traction on the ice when necessary. This extra grip converts into a greater force from the ice skater straight down onto the ice, which is then balanced by a bigger force upward from the ice onto the skater, resulting in an additional push into each jump.
Furthermore, the blades contain toe picks, which are sharp fangs at the front, which skaters use to dig into the ice when they need adequate traction to come to a stop or to allow them to launch into a leap.
For speed skating, on the other hand, skate blades are often larger and longer in order to generate more heat when the skater moves across the ice at high speeds. This temperature will cause a small amount of ice to melt, and this meltwater is excellent for sliding during speed skating, but not so good when you have to make sudden adjustments in your motions, such as in ice skating because it will lead to ice crack.
Additionally, ice techs will be employed in great numbers during the Winter Olympics and other ice-skating competitions to maintain the ice smoothness. In order to eliminate pollutants such as fluoride found in conventional tap water that would likely pool together and generate ripples when the water is frozen, the ice is made using a combination of deionization and reverse osmosis procedures.
Because ice skaters are always in motion, minor holes in the ice are acceptable and will not cause a skater to lose their stability. In sports such as curling, however, even the smallest flaw can have a negative impact on the outcome of the tournament, necessitating the need for ongoing ice patching. Although it does not affect performance, most sports involve painting the ice to make it dazzle.
Balance
When skating, the skater is subjected to two sorts of forces. The first is torque, which is defined as a force that causes rotation. Essentially, it is caused by an element of a force that acts in the direction of motion. The second type of force is air resistance, which is created by movement in the opposite direction of airflow.
A skater bends, crouches, or leans forward in order to maintain balance by operating in opposition to the two actions described above. As a result, there is counter torque and accelerated speed. A counter-torque is generated, which cancels out the torque created by the motional force and prevents the skater from falling or tipping. Because of the reduction in the frontal area exposed to the air, accelerated speed is produced.
Conclusion
Knowing the physics of ice skating might not make you the next Olympic champion when you put on your skates and head out, but it will quench your fascination when you glide over a tranquil lake on a crisp winter day. And that’s all that matters.