Sport Physics of curling
Search Questions | Browse by Topic | Questions By Topic : Sport
Sport
Physics of curling
What makes a curling rock move laterally towards its target?
Seed Expert Mostyn Field writes:
Try reading "What Puts the Curl in a Curling Stone?" - an article by physicist Dr. Mark Shegelski in Canadian Curling News, March, 2000.
The article states that after experiments to test several hypotheses, Shegelski’s team concluded that a rotating curling stone curls the way it does because (1) melting occurs as the rock slides over the ice, and (2) the rock drags some of the thin liquid film around it as it rotates, making the friction much less at the front than at the back of the stone, especially when it is in its final few feet of travel.
|
