fuckyeahfluiddynamics: The Olympic Charter declares that winter sports must be practiced on snow or
fuckyeahfluiddynamics: The Olympic Charter declares that winter sports must be practiced on snow or ice. Both are frozen forms of water, which despite its ubiquity, is one of the strangest substances around. In addition to its tendency to expand as it freezes, ice is inherently slippery, and no one’s quite certain yet why. Most people have heard the theory that ice skating is possible due to high pressure melting the ice beneath the narrow blade. But realistically, pressure melting should only work for ice down to about -3.5 degrees Celsius. By contrast, the ideal temperatures for figure skating and ice hockey are -5.5 and -9 degrees Celsius, respectively. Melting due to friction might account for slipperiness a few more degrees below freezing, but it doesn’t explain why ice can be slippery when you’re just standing on it. When physicist Michael Faraday suggested in 1850 that ice has a thin liquid-like layer at its surface, many discounted the theory. But modern experimental techniques and computer simulations have shown that Faraday was right. Ice has a liquid-like layer some 1 to 100 nanometers thick at its surface, and this layer persists to temperatures below -30 degrees Celsius. The process is known as surface pre-melting and what causes it is an area of active research for physical chemists. Current theories include hydrogen bonding and even quantum mechanical effects. (Image credit: AP Photo/B. Armangue; research credit: R. Rosenberg; Y. Li and G. Somorjai; F. Paesani and G. Voth) This opens FYFD’s two-week series on the physics and fluid dynamics of the Winter Olympics. Stay tuned! - Nicole -- source link
#materials science#science#surfaces#surface premelting#melting point#temperature