The Controversial Physics of Curling - Smarter Every Day 111

Tony Cole Another excellent video! Thanks Destin

March 18, 2014 17:24:40 · Reply

Eddie Moya I never though of curling as interesting until you made this video. Made me think a lot about a bunch of similar phenomenon. You might be interested to know the same effect occurs in ping pong - I know this because I play a lot. You get curvature/lift in the direction of spin - even up and down. When I realized this, it made me look up why it happens in ping pong. Its called the Magnus Effect, and it occurs in a lots of sports - baseball, tennis, soccor, etc. Theres even boats that maneuver using the effect, they are called Rotor Ships (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotor_ship). I've played ping pong for years and always had an intuitive understanding of why it happens, but it wasn't until this video that I researched it. Turns out Veritasium as a short video on the subject. http://youtu.be/23f1jvGUWJs I wonder if something similar could be taking place here - pressures may be generating "lift" to dictate movement rather than surface friction. Grinding down the pebbling with the sweeping maybe just lets some of the pressure escape - reducing the effect. I think you normally need higher speeds or surface areas to have this effect take place, but maybe the greater weight of the iron against the thin layer of fluid produces enough pressure to make it happen. Let me know what you think, I'm curious if it makes sense to someone like you who actually knows more about fluid dynamics.

March 25, 2014 19:10:00 · Reply

Barry McLaughlin I have been asked many times if sweeping speeds up a rock and the proper response I was told and that I give is NO, it can't increase the speed but it can reduce the rate of de-acceleration and therefore keep the rock straighter or travel further or both

March 26, 2015 14:03:06 · Reply