The Great Ice-Skating Competition! What's the Real Science
Behind Skating? by Nick D'Alto Skating is a simple activity. So
the science behind the sport must be simple, too, right? Wrong!
In fact, scientists have been arguing for over a hundred years
about the precise science that allows us to skate. Now there's a
new study, using technology designed for the space program. The
result? Everything we thought we knew about the science of
skating turns out to be wrong! For a long time, experts
theorized that the key to skating was pressure. Maybe the weight
of the skater balancing on those thin blades produced enough
pressure to melt the ice—leaving a thin film of water that
helped the skater slide. True? Well, ice really does melt when
it's placed under enough pressure—even when its temperature is
below 0 degrees C (32 degrees F). But then someone finally
measured the pressure between a skate blade and the ice. It
wasn't nearly enough to produce melting. So despite being quoted
since the 1800s (and still appearin