A Penetrating Look at Ice Friction A new approach for studying friction on ice helps explain why th
A Penetrating Look at Ice Friction
A new approach for studying friction on ice helps explain why the ease of sliding depends strongly on temperature, contact pressure, and speed.
[…]
In Latvia, where bobsledding, luge, and skeleton are popular, ice can be more than just “slippery.” The local language has another term slīdamība—roughly translated as “slideability”—which refers to the ease of movement on a surface. This terminology signifies the awareness that sliding on ice depends on multiple factors—something physicists have had trouble explaining despite 160 years of effort. Previous work has focused on the water layer that forms between the ice surface and the sliding object, say, an ice skate. However, this model does not show why friction is higher near the ice melting point than it is at lower temperatures (Fig. 1). A new study of the solid properties of ice may provide a solution. Rinse Liefferink from the University of Amsterdam and colleagues have performed a series of experiments, in which they measure both the friction of a sliding object and the hardness of ice over a wide range of conditions [1]. The observations show that the hardness decreases as the temperature increases, leading to a high-friction “ploughing” behavior once the sliding object is able to penetrate the softer ice surface. This novel approach to studying ice friction could help in developing technologies that improve safety for winter drivers or give an edge to winter athletes.
