My trip through Physics: Will I survive?!?!? - Short Track Speed Skating

Short Track

Speed Skating

Short track, also known as indoor, speed skating originated in Europe at the end of the 19th century but quickly spread to Canada and the United States in the early 1900’s. It grew out of a solution to the problem that the sport of speed skating had become so popular in the Western Hemisphere that there was not enough available ice for speed skaters to practice. Therefore, the sport transformed itself into one that could take place on a standard ice hockey rink rather than on a 400 meter long track oval. The sport’s rise in popularity was partly due to the North American racing rules, which introduced mass starts and a “pack” style of racing. The small track also brought with it new challenges such as tighter turns, shorter straight-aways, increased speed, and a closely bunched pack of jostling skaters with the inevitable falls and collisions. In 1967, the International Skating Union adopted the sport although no organized international competitions took place till 1976. Then in 1971, International Short Track Speed Skating conducted its first World Championship in Meudon-la-Foret, France. The next year, China became involved in the event and started to prepare skaters for the 1986 short track championships.

Two years later, in the 1988 Winter Olympics held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, short track racing was introduced as a demonstration sport where no Olympic medals were distributed. It was finally upgraded to a full Olympic sport in the 1992 Albertville, France games. Kim ki-hoon of Korea and Cathy Turner of the United States were the first to win medals in this event. The program was expanded from 4 events in 1992 to 8 events in 2002. These events are the same for both women and men and include the 500m, 1000m, 1500m and the relay (5000m (men) and 3000 m (women)). In recent years as the sport has gained in popularity and world wide appeal, other nations such as China, Korea, France, and Great Britain have emerged to challenge North America’s dominance in the sport. Thus, Korea has turned out to be a driving force in the sport through their incredible accomplishment of six gold medals a the 2006 Turnin Games as well as the their outstanding performance and eight medals at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

7. A violation called “charging the block,” refers to when a skater tries sneaking through the small space between the lead skater and the corner.

8. Disqualification may be the result of changing lanes or altering the course at the end of a race.

9. Participants must skate in a straight line from corner to finish.

10. Veering inside or outside in order to be the lead skater may result in disqualification.

Another example of a perfect inelastic collision could be this. A skater is skating quite peacefully down the straightaway at constant velocity when all of a sudden, he crashes into another skater, who also is traveling at a constant velocity. In all of his fright, the skater locks his arms about the waist of his competitor, so that they both move at the same constant velocity. This demonstrates the conservation of momentum. Simply put, a faster skater hits a slower skater, making them move together at a medium speed!

Attributions:

Pictures and Clipart:

Wallpaper for 2010 Vancouver Olympics:

http://www.wallpaper-z.com/events/1550/short-track-skating.html

Skating Gif:

http://3d-animated-gif.blogspot.com/2010/02/speed-skating.html

Skater – Clipart:

http://www.vectorjunky.com/keys-animated_gif_speed_skater-page2.html

2010 Olympic photo – Ohno leading:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stottn/4357777598/sizes/o/

Two skaters (Blue / Red)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnthescone/362893375/sizes/l/

2010 Olympic photo – Koreans leading

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stottn/4368251272/sizes/l/

Two skaters #2 (Blue/Red)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sports-media/3213454924/sizes/l/

Start with Ohno:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10422334@N08/4097627143/sizes/l/

2 women skaters:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/49324777@N00/4002733135

Race with Italians:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sports-media/3213471092/sizes/l/

Relay:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sports-media/3213452460/sizes/l/

Race – Italian in the lead:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sports-media/3213444902/sizes/l/

Apolo Anton Ohno photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/likethebirdschirping/4400007818/sizes/o/

Photo of collision:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45536714@N04/4362337052

Photo of Celski:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36514587@N05/3368033175

Photo of Ohno and Celski after win 2010 Olympics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32196809@N02/4357044929/sizes/l/

Photo of Women’s Start:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/95636458@N00/2231590811

Photo on Medal Stand:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47313496@N03/4360009702

Photo of Korean collision, 2010 Olympics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47421217@N08/4356087561

Photo of Ohno and Celski racing:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23481859@N03/4390886768

Graphics – speed skating black and white:

http://winterolympics.wikispaces.com/Speed+Skating (Contributions to http://winterolympics.wikispaces.com are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 License.)

American flag:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25289142@N05/4080491347

Korean flag:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30752387@N04/3095908451

Chinese flag:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25365382@N06/2515804150

Helmet:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10422334@N08/4097627143

Skates:

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Skate_shorttr...

Protective Gear:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33442021@N00/362893375

Suits:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10422334@N08/4097627143/sizes/l/

Gloves:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36514587@N05/3368033175

Olympic Flame – 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/44124400268@N01/4357464367

Ice Rink Photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/colddayforpontooning/4376765552/

Information:

http://www.vancouver2010.com/olympic-short-track-speed-skating/additional-information/about-the-sport_146076Zz.html

http://www.worldshorttrack.com/shorttrack/history.asp

http://www.olympic.org/en/content/Sports/All-Sports/Skating/Short-track-speed-skating/Short-track-speed-skating-Rules-Equipment-and-History/?Tab=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_track_speed_skating

http://how-to-speed-skate.suite101.com/article.cfm/begin_short_track_speed_skating

http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Short-track-speed-skating

http://www.usspeedskating.org/mediaGuide/

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv-pai2Vipk

The Final state is just before he moves into the turn at the top of the corner. This is a perfect example to illustrate that impulse equals momentum. As you can see, he applies a force over a time period, several times, and then moves with a velocity just before the turn, so one could therefore set the initial momentum plus the impulses to the final momentum.

A possible final state could be when the skater is still on the straightaway just about to go into a turn. In this final state, the skater would have a velocity and thus Kinetic Energy. However, how can this be? Even when disregarding the tiny amount of friction between the skate blades and ice, this would break the law of the Conservation of Energy. On the contrary, this is not true because the skater is doing "work" on the system, he is using his legs to push on the ice and accelerate himself forward.

While moving along the straight of the track

COE

Conservation of Momentum

COM

Conservation of Energy

The initial state could be when a skater is at the start, at rest. Because he has an initial velocity of Om/s, he has no kinetic energy.

The Initial state is at the very start of the race, a skater is poised and ready to go, at rest of course. When the gun blows, he applies a force in a fraction of a second, an impulse, and is on his way along the straight part of the rink. Throughout this portion of the track, he keeps adding impulses with more forces over small fractions of time.

Collisions in the straight-away

are also good examples of COM.

A skater is coming up behind

another skater who is moving just

a bit slower than his opponent.

They collide, sending the one

behind falling down, therefore at a severely decreased velocity, and the one he hit, a bit faster than before. This perfectly elastic collision demonstrates both the conservation of momentum and the conservation of kinetic energy. Simply put, the fast skater hits the slow skater, making the fast skater slower and the slow skater faster!

Picture a skater who is effortlessly gliding down the rink when he suddenly loses his orientation and hits the padded wall. The wall is very thick and soft, thus it applies a small force over a long period of time, an impulse, that is directed in the opposite direction from which the skater came. After this whole ordeal, the skater then is at rest. Simply put, a fast skater hits the wall and then stops!

COM (cont.)

Basic Rules

1. The direction is counter-clockwise.

2. Overtaking is allowed, but whoever decides to overtake is responsible for collisions and obstructions as a result.

3. If a skater is lapped, he/she may be moved to the outside of the rink by the referee.

4. If lapped twice, he/she must leave the race.

5. The right-of-way belongs to the lead skater.

6. Any potential passing skaters are responsible for avoiding body contact.

Attributions

1. The ideal ice temperature for short track is -5.5 degrees Celsius (22.1 degrees Fahrenheit).

2. Short track is not a sport where you can actually give predictions. Case in point was the 2002 Winter Olympics when Australia's Steven Bradbury won gold in the 1000m by simply being the last man standing and Apolo Ohno literally skidded across the finish on his belly to win the Silver medal.

3. Short track speed skater Apolo Ohno has eight Winter Olympic medals, the most for any American in a winter sport. He broke away from Bonnie Blair with a Bronze medal on Day 9 in Vancouver, 2010.

If you fantasize about flying at over 30 miles per hour around the center of an ice rink and passing on a sharp turn doesn’t scare you then, short track speed skating is the sport for you. It has been described by some as “human NASCAR” because of the speed, strategy, and skill involved with the sport. Short track speed skating is an exciting and highly challenging form of competitive speed skating where a group of skaters, between 4 and 6, skate on a short oval track with a circumference of 111.12m as each vies to become the first to cross the finish line. Whereas this sport requires great athleticism and stamina to maintain speed, balance, and agility, the short track skater must possess the mental-prowess to out-skate, outwit, and out-strategize one’s opponents.

Wacky Facts

Equipment cont.

Skates: Short Track skates are laced higher up the ankle than traditional skates. Made from customized foot molds and heavier materials to stabilize the feet and ankles (Especially around corners), the sharp baldes grip on the ice. The blades are bent so that they mirror the turns and are placed off-center (to the left) so the boot doesn’t make contact with the ice when leaning into a turn.

Rink: Because of the size of the track and the sharp turns, the walls of the rink are padded to minimize injury. A state-of-the-art pad system was installed at theUtah Olympic Oval in the fall of 2008. The pads have had a huge impact on the US Speedskating National Short Track program by preventing injuries. The result—safer short track speed skating on the “Fastest Ice on Earth.”

Skin-Tight Suit: Air tight suits mold to the body, so as to provide aerodynamics and minimal wind resistance.

Silver: Apolo Anotn Ohno: U.S.: 2:17.976 (137.976 seconds)

Men's 1500m Finals:

Women's 1000m Finals

Gold: Meng Wang: China: 1:29.213 (89.213 seconds)

Silver: Kathering Ruetter: U.S.: 1:29.324 (89.324 seconds)

Bronze: Seung-Hi Park: Korea: 1:29.379 (89.379 seconds)

Goggles: Although they are optional, they offer protection from wind and ice chips and tinted lenses help alleviate glare and increase visibility.

Gold: Jung-Su Lee: Korea: 2:17.611 (137.611 seconds)

Winners!!

History

Bronze: J. R. Celski: U.S.: 2:18.053 (138.053 seconds)

Equipment

Gloves: They are mainly used for protection, especially when the hand is in direct contact with the ice, when going a round a curve.

Protective Wear: This includes knee, shin, and neck guards, primarily for protection from the blade’s of other competitors and protection in the case of crashes.

Helmet: They are built for aerodynamics and offer protection from head injuries due to crashes into: ice, walls, and other competitors.

This work by Christopher Ponners and Cyrus Ghaznavi is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.