Nisa Mohd Yunus (Physics 4A Fall 2015)

Extra Credit Report

The Physics of Ice Skating: A Beginners Perspective

1. Introduction
One day, went to ice skating rink for the first time. At first struggled
as it was not how I had anticipated it to be. It was one thing to see it
done in movies but another to actually do it in real life. It wasnt the
same as walking, in terms of how I moved my legs. As soon as I
stepped onto the ice and attempted to move, my feet almost slid out
underneath me. Gripping hold of the side, I looked around and
observed the other occupants of the rink. There was an old couple
slowly skating around the rink and a young girl zooming and twirling
around near the middle of the rink. I opted to observe the former as
they moved slowly but gracefully across the ice one foot after the
other...

Learning to skate on ice for the first time can be a daunting experience for
some people as not everyone can intuitively know how to move on ice. The
reason being that our bodies are so accustomed to walking on a regular
surface that altering our way of moving just may result in awkwardness in
movement and possibly injuries for ourselves. Over the years mankind has
adapted in order to make ice skating possible, from the shoes to be worn to
the movement of our bodies. For novices in ice skating, it would not hurt to
learn a bit about why these adaptations were made. Whether one is a
beginner or an expert in skating, as soon as they step foot onto the ice they
are unknowingly putting laws and concepts of physics such as friction and
Newtons Laws into practice.

2. Understanding the Conditions

Why is it that we cannot use our regular method of movement, walking,

when it comes to ice skating? In fact, walking is such a mundane task that
not many stop to think about the physics behind it and why the same
principles cannot be applied in every situation. From Newtons Third Law, it
can be understood that every force has an equal force that counteracts it. In
other words, if object A pushes object B, then object B pushes object A at
exactly the same time, with exactly the same amount of force, but in the
opposite direction. So, when we walk, the force our feet exerts on the ground
is countered by the force exerted by the ground itself, allowing us to move
forward. This force between the ground and our feet, termed as friction, is
also involved in preventing us from slipping about everywhere. Within
frictional force, a constant known as the coefficient of friction is also
included. In class, we studied two types of coefficients of friction, the static
coefficient and the kinetic coefficient. Based on Figure 1, the coefficient of
friction is defined as the ratio of the horizontal frictional force and the normal
force of the object exerting the force. In general, when walking, the force we
exerted by does not overcome this frictional force, allowing for us to move
forward without slipping.

Figure 1: Definition of coefficient of friction

The difference between our everyday surface and the icy surface
in a skating rink is the amount of friction it provides. Typically, the frictional
force provided must be adequate enough so that our foot remains stationary,
relative to the floor surface when forces are applied by the leg to push
forward or stop the walking body. If the frictional force is insufficient, the
horizontal force will cause the foot to move, relative to the floor resulting in

one slipping. Based on the previous statement, the reason why a person
would slip on any surface is that the force exerted by them onto the surface
has exceeded the frictional force provided by the surface.
A person would generally slip or fall on ice because its coefficient of
friction is relatively low and much less than one. A system with a low
coefficient of friction has a low resistance to the surfaces sliding across one
another making it easier for a person to move or slip across the surface. This
can be seen easily in real life, if one observes how little force is required to
push someone over a certain distance on an icy surface compared to the
force required to push the same person over a similar distance on a tiled
surface.

3. Adaptations Made by Humans

The idea behind skate blades and their sharp blades in to decrease the
surface area in contact with the ice and increase the pressure exerted on it.
As a result of any kinetic friction, there is always energy lost in the form of
heat. By moving across the ice, the heat formed would melt the ice and form
a thin layer of liquid on the metal blade which is what allows the skater to
glide across the surface of ice. This liquid acts as a lubricant which decreases
friction allowing for smoother motion. Now that the coefficient of friction
between ice and the blade is almost zero, the only way to start moving is to
push off the ice with a force perpendicular to the skate blade. However, it is
the structure of the blade that makes skating possible in the first place. The
blade itself is not straight across horizontally along the part that makes
contact with the surface. It is sharpened in a concave curve. This gives the
skater two edges to skate upon as opposed to the flat surface of regular
shoes. These edges require a similar yet different form of movement from
our legs in order to be able to move properly.

In ice skating, the frictional force produced by the surface is used to

start movement. Figure 2 describes how as the skater angles their foot
outward and extends the knee, the inside edge of the blade encounters the
ice and a perpendicular force, F, is exerted on the blade by the ice. The
component of the force F that points forward (in the direction of motion) is
what pushes the skater forward. Additionally, friction enables the edge to
grip into the ice. The equal and opposite force of the ice onto the edge also
contributes in propel the skater forward with kinetic energy. Note how the
application of Newtons Third Law still applies to ice skating as it did in
walking. The main difference was how a skater moves in adaptation to the
new type of shoes used.

Figure 2: Movement in ice skating

Once a person starts getting the basics of how to move on ice, it is safe
to practice running or moving at a greater speed. Moving at a greater
velocity means that at some point we have to accelerate. According to
Newtons Second Law of Motion, force is a function of mass and acceleration.
In other words, a greater force must be applied by skaters in order for them
to move faster.

4. Learning a Few Tricks

In figure skating competitions, participants would execute numerous
jumps and spins that would dazzle the audience. A figure skaters spins are
particularly interesting as it uses the law of conservation of angular
momentum as shown in Figure 3. Before starting spins, figure skaters start
skating before going into the spin during which they draws their arm and a
leg inward. This application of the conservation of momentum is through the
idea of reducing the distance between the axis of rotation and some
of their mass, reducing their moment of inertia. According to the law of the
conservation of angular momentum, the angular momentum of an object will
not change unless external torque is applied to the object and since angular
momentum is conserved, their rotational velocity increases to compensate.
Prior to the spin the skater does not have angular momentum so in order to
generate it, he must apply a force to the ice and the force the ice puts in the
skater in turn gives the angular momentum necessary for the spin by
converting the linear motion to angular motion. In order to execute as many
spins as possible, the figure skater must start with a lot of total angular
momentum. This is possible by having a large moment of inertia at the
beginning of the spin which will then reduce as the skater draws his arms or
leg in. So, to start spins, a figure skater will spread out either their arms or
legs to maximize their moment of inertia and they will pull in their limbs to
create more angular velocity while they spin.

Figure 3: Application of conservation of angular momentum

5. Sample Calculation
The following is an example calculation using the concepts of angular

momentum
Goal - To estimate how much a figure skater speeds up by reducing
their moment of inertia

We need to figure out the moment of inertia Iout when her arms and a leg
are out (and she's spinning slowly) and Iin when her arms and leg are in
(and she's spinning fast). A crude approximation of the the skater's shape,
good enough for the purpose here, says that she is a solid cylinder made
up of most of her mass plus three rods representing her arms and a leg.
The moment of inertia Itorso of her torso is the same in both cases, and it's
given by Mtorsortorso (the factor of comes in because not all her torso
mass is a distance rtorso away from the axis, it's only halfway out on the
average).
A typical female skater has mass of around 50 kg, I'd guess. I'd also guess
that about 40 kg is in her torso plus one leg. Finally, I'll guess that the
appropriate radius of our figure skater cylinder is 0.1 m. That means that
her torso moment of inertia Itorso = 0.2 kg m. Now, when her arms and
extra leg are in, she just has that extra mass at a distance rtorso away from
the axis. So, let's just add mr = 0.1 kg m, with m = 10 kg and r = 0.1 m,
to get Iin:
Iin = Itorso + mr = 0.3 kg m
Now when her arms and a leg are out, they are further from her rotation
axis. If her arms are straight out they have moment of inertia
(2marm)rarm, where rarm is the distance from the axis to her fingertips. I'll

guess that's about 0.6 m. If her leg is straight out, it contributes mlegrleg.
I'll guess her leg is 1.0 m long. All that's left is to decide how to divide her
10 kg non-torso mass into her arms and leg. I'll guess that one leg is
about equal to two arms, so mleg = 5 kg and marm = 2.5 kg. With these
estimates, the arms contribute 0.9 kg m and the legs contribute 2.5 kg
m to Iout. So, we wind up with
Iout = Itorso + (2marm)rarm + mleg = 3.6 kg m
From this estimate, the skater's moment of inertia is much larger when
her arms and one leg are out, all due to the r dependence of I. We can
now estimate how much she speeds up by pulling her arms and leg in by
applying conservation of angular momentum, which says Lin = Lout, or
Iin in = Iout out
=> in / out = Iout/Iin = 12
A typical rotation speed with arms and a leg out is 2 revolutions per
second; the above estimate says she'll spin up to 24 revs/sec with her
arms and leg pulled in!

6. Conclusion
There are various applications of physics concepts learnt in class in our
daily lives. Being able to understand what was going on can lead to an
enriching experience. Through this report, one can understand the general
physics of ice skating and why certain motions are executed in specific
ways. Having comprehension about the concepts involved in activities
such as this can make it easier for one to adapt to foreign situations.