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The Physics of Sliding on Ice

by Gabriel Popkin, Inside Science

For a solid material, ice is strangely slippery. While Olympic skiers and children on a snowy hill may or may not care why their favorite winter activities are physically possible, the question has bedeviled scientists for more than a century. Ice is “one of the most complicated” materials, said physicist Bo Persson of Forschungszentrum Jülich in Germany. “It behaves strangely compared to other materials.”

A new study published by Persson in the Journal of Chemical Physics provides a mathematical foundation for hypotheses that a liquid-like form of water on the ice surface accounts for its slickness.

The finding could aid designers of winter sports gear who want to increase sliding on ice, and tire designers who want to minimize it. It could also help experimental scientists who have measured ice friction but have not been able to fully explain their results.

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