Wed. Nov.

27/13

Physics of Skating

Celine Yau

Physics of Skating
Figure skaters and speed skaters have a basic understanding of physics. On ice, Newtons second law is so obvious; it is almost comical that it takes a few physics class to see the relationship between pushing backwards and moving forwards. Most figure skaters do not comprehend why they pull their arms in during a spin or jump, yet, they know by doing so, they will have more rotations in a shorter time.Additionally, in jumps, skaters experience a change in energy causing their jumps to have a parabolic path. Even the simple things, such as what angle to push off with has a technical explanation.Figure skating and speed skating tie in so nicely because not only do both require ice but, they both require the principal of centripetal acceleration. Unfortunately, the physics of skating does not cover the artistic ability of figure skaters or the speed skaters passion, but it is a start to covering this magnificent winter sport.

Sometimes, friction makes it harder to do certain jobs, however, in skating, without friction, it would be impossible to move. When skaters move forward, they must push backwards with the pushing foot, but what most people do not realize is that friction keeps the pushing foot from slidingout. This form of friction is called static friction. The friction that allows skater to slow down and stop is called kinetic friction. Skaters turn out their foot and push down against the ice to increase the amount of friction between the ice and skate. Furthermore, while most people believe that skaters glide simply because ice is slippery, the truth is that friction and pressure also play a big role to allow the skater to glide. Skates are designed so that all your body weight is supported by one -occasionally two- thin blades. Becausethere is a high amount of pressure from your weight transferred onto the thin blade, the melting point of ice is reduced. On top of that, the kinetic friction from the skate blade against the ice causes a thin layer of water, thus it is not the ice that makes the skater glide so smoothly but actually the thin layer of water on top of the ice. Arenas do not drop the temperatures way below 0 because not only is it a waste of energy but it would also be harder to produce a thin layer of water with excruciatingly low temperatures.

Wed. Nov. 27/13

Physics of Skating Celine Yau The graph shows that around 0C, there needs to be around 1 P(atm) to change ice into water. The P in the graph represents atmospheric pressure which is the force per unit area exerted by the air above it. This explains why ice under more pressure will melt more easily. Also, as the temperature drops, more pressure is needed to convert ice into water.

Next, skating is an excellent way to explain Sir Isaac Newtons laws of physics. To start off simple, the easiest law to explain is Newtons third law: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When figure skaters wish to move forward, they must push backwards against the ice. In the diagram, it shows the skater is moving forwards by pushing backwards and causing the ice to exert a force (F) perpendicular to the blade. To jump, ice skaters push down on the ice and the ice pushes back up (this is also known as the normal force).
http://www.real-world-physicsproblems.com/images/physics_ice_skating_8.png

As for Newtons first law: the law of inertia

A body moving on a level surface will continue in the same direction at a constant speed unless disturbed, can be explained through spins or jumps. The se two tricks have a few things in common; the first thing is angular momentum. Several things determine angular momentum: the torque, moment of inertia, and angular velocity. To understand angular velocity also known as an omega ()-, you must be familiar with angular displacement. Angular displacement is nearly the same as linear displacement the difference is that angular displacement deals with angles. In other words,

Wed. Nov. 27/13

Physics of Skating

Celine Yau

angular displacement is the angle that a rotating body goes through; this is measured in degree or radians. In this picture, the arrow started on the x-axis and moved to red line, then the purple line. Just like linear displacement, a direction must be shown. For this case we can choose counter clockwise, this makes counter clockwise motion positive and clockwise motion negative. The displacement can be expressed with the equation .

Just like angular displacement is to linear displacement, angular velocity is the equivalent to linear velocity. Angular velocity () is the rate of change of angular displacement ,to simplify: how fast an object is rotating. Angular velocity is measured in radians/second or degrees/seconds. In this case, to determine the angular velocity:

The next component to angular momentum is the moment of inertia.As explained by Newtons first law, an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion unless an outside force is applied. Once that law is explained, the name for moment of inertia is quite simple; moment of inertia is the measure of an objects resistance to changes in its rotation ( it is measured in m4 or kbm2). When the mass is spread out, it is less likely to tip over; the opposite is true for when the mass is closer to the center. For example, tight rope walkers hold onto a pole (horizontally), this helps them maintain balance and not fall over as easily.

Wed. Nov. 27/13

Physics of Skating

Celine Yau

To review, the chart below shows the connections between translational quantities to the rotational equivalent mentioned in this report: Translational Quantities Force F (N) Mass m (kg) Time t (s) Displacement d (m) Velocity v (m/s2) Rotational Equivalent Torque I (Nm) Moment of Inertia I (kg m2) Time t (s) Angular displacement (rad) Angular Velocity (rad/s 2) Back to the original topic, angular momentum (H) measures the tendency of an object to keep moving.The equation for angular momentum is where Irepresents the moment of inertia and

is angular velocity. Similar to energy, angular momentum is conserved unless an outer force acts upon it. When figure skaters start spinning, they spread out their arms and extend their legs; this causes
http://www.freewebs.com/ayxl/figu reskate.jpg

them to have a higher moment of inertia because their mass is further away from their axis of

rotation the centre of where a skater rotates. To spin faster, figure skaters bring their arms into their axis of rotation; this will cause their moment of inertia to lower. Since is their angular

momentum
http://www.einstein-online.info/spotlights/angular_momentum

conserved, angular

naturally,

velocity will increase, meaning the figure skater will have more rotations in a shorter amount of time.

There are two ways a skater can stop: by increasing their moment of inertia or waiting for friction to do it for them. By increasing the moment of inertia, the angular velocity lowers

Wed. Nov. 27/13 because

Physics of Skating

Celine Yau

. Next, do recall how angular momentum is conserved unless an external force

acts upon the object. For figure skating, the only external forces are gravity and friction. Since gravity acts vertically through the skaters centre of mass, it does not change the skater s angular momentum. So, only when the force of friction overcomes the force applied will the skater slow down and come to a stop.

There are several parts to generating angular momentum for spinning on ice. The first part would be applying a force against the ice then -as mentioned earlier-, the ice would push back against the skater and propel them forwards. This force must be applied a certain distance away from the axis of rotation. If the force is applied directly through the skaters axis of rotation, the skater will not spin. In addition to that factor, the force must cause a torque.Another way to look at torque is that it is like a force (push/pull in a specific direction that moves an object), except it is applied to gain angular momentum. A torque which is measured in Nm-, is the tendency of a force to rotate an object around an axis, it can be thought of as a twist to an object. To find torque use the equation: where r is the position vector starting from where the torque is to the point of the applied force; F is the force. Because torque is dealing with the multiplication of vectors, can be used. In terms of spinning, can be substituted with , therefore the equation becomes .

Figure skaters want to start off with a large moment

http://zonalandeducation.com/mstm/physics/ mechanics/forces/torque/torque2.gif

of inertia so that later on, they can increase their angular velocity. Keep in mind, with a larger moment of inertia, the more force it takes to start spinning. If there is a larger F value, and same r value, naturally, the product (torque) will be larger. As a result of the torque being larger, the angular momentum will be greater too, allowing the skater to spin faster.

Another major component to figure skating is the jumps. Figure skaters want their jumps to be both high and long. The key factors that come into play when trying to achieve a high and long

Wed. Nov. 27/13

Physics of Skating

Celine Yau

jump are take-off angle, take-off velocity and take-off height. If figure skaters take off at around 80there jumps will be very high but not very long. Also, when figure skaters take off at around 20 there jumps will be longer but not high. Ultimately, to have a nice balance of height and length, the take-off angle should be around 45; this allows the skater enough height and time to finish all their rotations in the air.

When people jump forwards, their path is in a parabolic shape. This is because the gravity is
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2769/4215796779_a80fb5c17 0.jpg

constantly

causing

an

acceleration

of

approximately 9.8m/s2 [down].

When skaters

push off the ice, they have Kinetic Energy which is energy due to motion. Then, as the skater increases their height, the Kinetic Energy is converted into Gravitational Potential Energy which is energy an object possesses because of its position in the gravitational field.When all the Kinetic Energy (Ek) has transformed into Gravitation Potential Energy (Eg), this is the max height that the skater will reach and for a millisecond, the skaters velocity will be 0. Lastly, gravity will accelerate the skaters velocity back down to the ice. What goes up must come down. Isaac Newton As for the horizontal displacement, according to Newtons third law, when the skater jumps, he/she must push down and backwards on the ice. However, in reality, the skater has already converted chemical potential energy (muscles power) into kinetic energy, thus the skater already has quite a bit of horizontal velocity. So in actuality, the skater mainly needs to focus on pushing down. Once the figure skater has hit the ground, the gravitational potential energy they had at the peak of the jump is converted into kinetic energy. Just like spinning, the skater needs to start with a high moment of inertia so that they can increase their angular velocity. After take-off, skaters cannot change their angular momentum because the only external force acting on the skater is air resistance. However, due to the small amount of height (relative to the Earths atmosphere) that the skater reaches, air resistance does not affect the skaters angular momentum.Since there is only so much a person can spread out their mass,

Wed. Nov. 27/13

Physics of Skating

Celine Yau

the more complex the jumps become (doubles, triples, and quadruples spins in the air) the tighter the skater must squeeze to yield enough angular velocity.

Moving away fromfigure skating, the next progression for the physics of skating is speed skating. Speed skating seems quite simple, but just like every sport, there is a technique that goes into the exercise. When skaters push back with their foot, they dont actually push off at perpendicular angle to the blade. They push back 35 -as illustrated in figure (b)- from the blade. This allows 77% of the force to be transferred into movement compared to the 70% energy transfer if they pushed perpendicular to the blade (illustrated in figure (a)).

The max speed that a skater can reach is influenced by how fast the skater can move their legs. The average maximumhumanspeed for runners is 43 kph. However, skaters can reach up to 50kph. The reason for this is because the 43kph is relative to the ground. While skating, the skate on the ice is gliding forwards while the skater is moving their other foot forwards. This means that during one step the skaters
Gliding for Gold: The Physics of Winter Sports

gliding foot moves about 0.7v because: By using , you can find the speed of the

skater relative to the direction they are going.

Wed. Nov. 27/13

Physics of Skating

Celine Yau

The next stride allows the skater to move back towards the way they want to go thus, the next stride contributes to the skaters speed. Therefore the total speed will be 1.4v. And if the max leg speed is around 43 kph, then skaters theoretical max speed will be (not including friction). Once the skater reaches the maximum speed, the skater does not need to overcome friction or drag, and there is no need for the skater to increase speed thus, less energy is needed.On top of that, at maximum speed, it becomes harder for the skater to push against the ice. When the skaters speed reaches the speed of his/her legs, it results in no force exerted on the ice. When watching speed skating, you will notice how skaters will lean towards the centre of the rink. They must do this because of centripetal acceleration (ac).Centripetal acceleration is the rate of change of tangential velocity.Tangential velocity is the instantaneous linear velocity of an object moving in a circular path, and its direction is tangential to the circle at that point. At the ends of the ice rinks, speed skaters must travel in a semicircle, during that time, they are travelling in uniform circular motion. Because the direction of velocity is always changing, there is always acceleration during uniform circular motion. This acceleration is pointed towards the center of rotation, and is where centripetal (center seeking) acceleration receives its name from. To calculate the direction of the change in velocity, two directions of the velocity of an object are picked and inputted into .

Next, to calculate the magnitude:triangles ABC and PQR are similar triangles thus find v: producing: and is rearranged to

. We divide the equation above by the t . That is the same as because

http://cnx.org/content/m42084/latest/

Wed. Nov. 27/13

Physics of Skating

Celine Yau

centripetal acceleration is . This equation can become more simplified into Key for the photo: g is the acceleration due to gravity, which is equal to 9.8 m/s2 on earth. G is the center of mass of the system (including the skaters skates). P is the approximate contact point between the skater's blades and the ice. L is the distance between point P and point G. Fxis the horizontal contact force, with the ice, acting on the skater's blade at point P. Fy is the vertical contact force with the ice acting on the skater's blade at point P. R is the radius of the turn, measured from the center of the turn to the center of mass. ac is the centripetal acceleration of point G. is the angle between the horizontal and the line passing through points P and G. This measures the lean that the speed skater has. yielding

Fy is 0 because there is no vertical acceleration. To deal with the horizontal force, we combine the equation for centripetal acceleration and Newtons second law

(equation 1). Because is

constant, this means the skater is in a state of rotational equilibrium which means the total angular acceleration is 0.To show this mathematically:

(equation 2).Onceequation 1, equation 2 and centripetal acceleration are combined, it produces the equation and can be used to calculate how much a speed skater must lean so that they can

turn around the rink. For example, if a skater going 20m/s around a semicircle with a radius of 8.5m, the skater has a lean of 11.8.

By understanding centripetal acceleration, we can move back into figure skating and more specifically, the death spiral (shown in the image below) presented in pairs figure skating.

Wed. Nov. 27/13

Physics of Skating This famous position

Celine Yau deals with

centripetal and centrifugal force. The man in the picture pulls the woman into the pivot point (P); he acts like the centripetal force in this system. Centrifugal force comes from the words centrum which means center- and fugere - to flee. In this system, the woman acts like centrifugal force. However, in reality, the performers will skate into this position and thus the only reason the woman is pulling away is because of her inertia. For the two skaters to maintain rotating around a point on ice, the man must use one foot to push against the ice. A free body diagram that shows the skaters as one body (as drawn bellow) helps determine the amount of force that the man must exert on the ice.

ac is the centripetal acceleration of the center of mass M due to the rotation rate v. As discussed in the speed skating section, centripetal acceleration points towards the center of the circle. FP is the force exerted by the ice on the male skater's blade at point P. This force acts in the direction of the centripetal acceleration ac. Then, because of Newtons second rule, acceleration is , the equation becomes
,Fp can be seen as . Since centripetal

. To put this equation to use,

the women has an approximate mass of 50 kg (mA = 50 kg) and the man has 80 kg (mB = 80 kg), is 308 rad/s, and R is 0.4 m. As a result,Fp equals 750 N indicating the man must push down with a force of 750N to stay in place.

Wed. Nov. 27/13

Physics of Skating

Celine Yau

Skating has many different things happening at the same time; even the most beginner thing like taking a step forward causes melting, friction, and proves one of the three most important laws of physics. Athletes who skate at home have a greater advantage because they know the temperature and the amount of pressure they must apply to melt the ice.Figure skating isan excellent example of angular acceleration and torque; by watching the Olympics,these different elements can be spotted in the figure skaters spins.With the understandingof angular acceleration, comes the knowledge of understanding angular velocity, and moment of inertia.The greatest thing about understanding energy transfer from kinetic to potential is that while watching figure skaters, you realizethe amount offorce that a skater must overcome during their jumps. This really puts some perspective inwatching the athletes perform. Once again, angular momentum is another physics element that is incorporated in jumps; the more complex the jumps are, the tighter the skater must pull in. Once you know how to skate, it iseasier than running because at maximum speed, the skater does not need to use as much force to move forward.At maximum speed,the skater does not need to overcome friction/drag. The complexity of speed skating comes in when skaters need to turn around at the end of the rink. Due to centripetal acceleration, skaters must lean a certain degree in order to complete the turn; this lean depends on the radius of the semicircle, and the speed. Moving back into figure skating, during a death spiral, the couple experiences a centripetal force. So that the pair continues to turn around on an axis, the man must apply a force against the ice with one foot.The pressure of this force is based on how much the couple weighs, how big their circle is, and how fast their angular velocity is. Understanding the physics to speed skating and figure skating can make it easier to fix the small errors in skating techniques. Still, just like every other sport, there is a reason why the nerds (despite their knowledge of physics) still do not fare so well in competitive skating. The jumps, spins, and the speed all require practice, plus some cuts and bruises to achieve.

Wed. Nov. 27/13

Physics of Skating

Celine Yau

Bibliography
C., Turville, and Vaile B. Quicksmart Introductory Physics. Australia: Australian Print, 1995. Chieh, Chung. CAcT. n.d. http://www.science.uwaterloo.ca/~cchieh/cact/c123/phasesdgm.html (accessed November 16, 2013). Crowell, Benjamin. Conceptual Physics. Fullerton, California: Light and Matter, 1998-2010. Denny, Mark. Gliding for Gold: The Physics of Winter Sports. Baltimore, Maryland: The John Hopkins University Press, 2011. Drakos, Nikos. Theoretical Physics at the University of Winnipeg. February 5, 1996. http://theory.uwinnipeg.ca/physics/circ/node6.html (accessed November 16, 2013). King, Deborah. "Figuring out Figure Skating." NBC Learn; National Science Foundation, February 22, 2010. Moskowitz, Clara. livescience. February 16, 2010. http://www.livescience.com/6120-physics-figureskating.html (accessed November 1, 2013). Normani, Franco. Real World Physics Problem. 2009-2013. http://www.real-world-physicsproblems.com/physics-of-ice-skating.html (accessed November 5, 2013). OpenStax College. Connexions. October 15, 2012. http://cnx.org/content/m42084/latest/ (accessed November 13, 2013). Philips, Jonny, and Richard Ambrose. "I Didn't Know That: The Science Behind Ice Skating." National Geographic, December 25, 2012. Physics & Biomechanics. April 1998. http://btc.montana.edu/olympics/physbio/biomechanics/biointro.html (accessed November 2, 2013). Rounce, John, and Trevor Lowe. Calculations for A-level Physics. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Scotprint, 2002.