The Olympics may be over, but teachers and parents are still using the science behind the games to educate children.
Ice skating is a classic lesson in physics. When an ice skater spins, they are using angular momentum. In a spin, their arms act as weights. When arms are extended, the skater spins slowly. When the skater changes their moment of inertia and bring their arms into their body, they spin faster.
I brought this demonstration to Becky Ditchfield on the morning newscast. It’s my rule to never practice ahead of time with Becky. So, what you see on TV is the first time she’s ever seen the demo. I guess she’s sensitive to getting dizzy because she could barely read the teleprompter at the end of the segment. If I hadn’t of caught her, she would have spun into a half million dollar camera.
Every four years, the stakes get higher for figure skaters at the Olympics as they try to increase rotation in the air with their triple axels and quadruple toe loops. Figure skating is one of the most demanding sports at the Olympics.
It is a complicated skill with a lot of different motions. Skaters need to optimize a lot of different conditions – speed, force, vertical velocity and angular momentum. All with exact timing.
Angular momentum is an important piece of jumping in skating. It determines how fast a skater can rotate. The more angular momentum, the higher the potential to spin.
Skaters generate angular momentum by pushing off the ice with their skates.
Pushing off the ice also generates vertical velocity. Vertical velocity gets a skater high enough in the air to do the spin by producing forces from the jump during takeoff.
What happens is an action and a reaction. As the leg muscles contract and the leg pushes down against the ice, the ice creates a force that pushes back on the legs, creating vertical velocity. The more velocity a
…
The Vancouver 2010 opening ceremonies are Friday night and to celebrate, the Morning Men of 9News tried out for Team USA.
Okay, I’m a science geek, but I’ve always dreamed of being an Olympic athlete. To realize this dream, I joined my on-air co-workers at 9News – Gary Shapiro, Gregg Moss, Graeme Nistler and Rob Proctor – to form the 9News ice skating team. Here’s the problem… we received some ill-advised guidance from legendary but shadowy Olympic coach Boris Kreskov. This opportunity, along with the $500 I gave him, proved to have some flaws. I also made a bad judgment call when I brought my fire extinguisher. Take a look…
Kreskov put us through a series of unusual exercises that involved both yoga and psychological intimidation before turning us loose on skates.
Shapiro, Nistler and Proctor actually stayed upright. Moss looked fetching in his Spiderman helmet, while I stunned the coach and a handful of onlookers with my use of a fire extinguisher to propel myself across the ice.
