Researcher solves the riddle of how a curling rock achieves the sport’s eponymous curl
It took four years and the perfect analogy to figure it out.
A curling rock curves down a sheet of ice like the blade in a circular saw jams against a thick piece of wood. It’s not just a lovely bit of poetry, but the comparison that Ed Lozowski has come up with to explain how the path of a hunk of polished granite can curl as it slides on ice. It took four years of calculating and measuring the movement of rocks at a community centre, but Dr. Lozowski, professor emeritus with the University of Alberta’s department of earth and atmospheric sciences, has figured out a conceptual model to explain the curl as well as an equation for measuring total curl distance. He’s published the results with co-researcher Mark Shegelski, a physics professor at the University of Northern British Columbia, in the latest issue of Cold Regions Science and Technology.
As in other ice sports, the curling sheet is periodically sprayed with water. These freezing water droplets create “pebbles.” When the textured bottom of the stone touches a pebble, it binds to the pebble and pulls it like an elastic. Once the pebble stretches as far as it can, the rock rotates and lurches away. It takes tens of nanoseconds to happen. “Even though each encounter produces a very small pivot, the total number of pivots is large,” Dr. Lozowski told U of A’s folio website. The result is a total pivot – a curl – of a few degrees.
Though he’s figured out the physics behind the sport’s eponymous curl, the ice researcher admits he can’t see how it will help curlers once they’re on the hack. “I wish I could say, ‘Eureka, I have come up with a way to make Canadian curlers even better than they are,’” he told the CBC. “All the parameters have to do with the nature of the ice, and if the ice maker changes them, he changes them for everyone who plays on that ice.”
Featured Jobs
- Fashion - Instructional Assistant/Associate Professor (Creative & Cultural Industries)Chapman University - Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
- Economics - Associate/Full Professor of TeachingThe University of British Columbia
- Vice-President Research & Scientific EngagementMS Canada
- Indigenous Studies - Assistant Professor, 1-year termFirst Nations University of Canada
More from News
-
Headlines for December 13, 2024
CTV NewsFirst group of internationally trained family doctors already making a difference in northern OntarioWith doctor shortages across the country, Ontario is tapping into the availability of internationally trained family physicians to solve part of the health...
-
Headlines for December 12, 2024
Research MoneyGovernment must stop IP supported by public funding from flowing to other countries and not benefitting CanadaPublicly funded research in Canada is generating more intellectual property and economic benefits for other countries than it is here,...
-
Headlines for December 11, 2024
CBC NewsMPs call for crackdown on student protest encampments, ban on display of terror symbolsMany recommendations in the antisemitism and Islamophobia reports were rejected by Conservative, Bloc MPs. The Globe and MailOntario colleges cut spending by $752-million this...
-
Science diplomacy could bolster Canada’s research reputation
More initiatives are being launched in order to tackle humanity’s common challenges.
More from Campus news
-
Tracing Alberta’s environmental history
Students go ‘beyond the microscope’ thanks to a partnership between MacEwan University and the Royal Alberta Museum.
-
UPEI implementation plan is underway
There is ‘an overwhelming desire of the community to move forward,’ says new president Wendy Rodgers.
-
Nipissing hosts inaugural fundraising gala
The goal of the gala was to raise money for the Student Support Fund, which provides emergency financial support to students.
-
Canada’s largest student-run fashion show demonstrates the power of university clubs
Queen’s students from all disciplines come together to showcase their creative talents and raise money for charity.
More from Articles
-
New life for Dimensions
A little over a year after the program was quietly shut down, it has been quietly revived.
-
Take part in UA’s gender equity survey – deadline extended
Help promote strategies towards meaningful change.
-
Engaging the public in sidewalk astronomy
The #popscope project energizes public spaces through experiential, free-choice learning.
-
New zine developed by OCAD U students helps artists perfect the art of tabling
‘The goal was to create something both practical and visually engaging,’ says one of the creators.
Post a comment
University Affairs moderates all comments according to the following guidelines. If approved, comments generally appear within one business day. We may republish particularly insightful remarks in our print edition or elsewhere.
2 Comments
Is this a full explanation of the theory? Why would this produce the observed curl? Surely the side of the rock travelling in the general direction of the rock would have more pebble interactions than the other side and would, for a clockwise spin, pull the rock to the right, all as viewed by the thrower. But it curls to the left!
I meant left where I said right and vice versa