Chilly Tuesday Trivia

Re: Chilly Tuesday Trivia

John Veerkamp

My experience plus some guessing. It can be too cold. After/below a certain temp, the ice begins to fracture with very rough surface and very brittle conditions. I suspect that the steel on the skates would also be too brittle to be safe.

Re: Chilly Tuesday Trivia

Frederick Nelson

Yes. Skating works by the ice immediately under the blade melting slightly from the pressure of the skater above. The skater is actually sliding on a thin film of liquid water lubricating the skate as it slides along the surface of the ice. Too cold and the ice won't melt properly, leaving a greater friction between the skate and the ice, eventually reaching a point where the skate won't slide at all.

Water has some rather peculiar properties at the extremes of temperature and pressure. We are used to seeing it through its liquid state at near atmospheric pressures, from slightly frozen to just above boiling, and don't get to observe it much beyond those points. Truth is, the colder ice gets, the harder it gets, just like most metals.

Fred

observing some extremely cold water (snow) in Eastern Missouri

   Correct!

Bill Earl

The actual temperature at which skating becomes impossible depends on the geometry of the blade and the weight of the skater.

It's not quite that cold here in MA, but Sunday night my son was able to throw a cup-full of water up in the air and watch it come down frozen.