It seems their paper even won an award, so perhaps after decades of controversy the question as to what makes a curling stone curl has finally be answered....?
http://www.wearofmaterialsconference.com/ harry On Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 10:45 PM, H Veeder <[email protected]> wrote: > I just realised my criticism is invalid. An asymmetric force will > not arise from the action of carving since the stone is simultaneously > carving the ice all around the ring of contact rather than just at the > leading edge. This means the scratches left behind in the ice will be > enough to cause the stone to curl as the trailing edge bumps into those > scratches. > > Harry > > > On Sun, Jun 23, 2013 at 9:40 PM, H Veeder <[email protected]> wrote: > >> What puts the curl in a curling stone? >> This is a question that has interested me for about 10 years. >> Since Uppsala university is now involved in both cold fusion and curling >> the first tenuous link has been made between the two fields. ;-) >> As the article points out many explanations have been proposed and they >> all have shortcomings. The creators of this newest explanation seem >> overlook the force required to _carve_ the scratches at the leading edge. >> This activity, I think, would tend to make the stone curl in the opposite >> direction or at least cancel the effect of the curling force produced by >> the scratches on the trailing edge. >> Harry >> >> >> >> The mechanism that puts the curl in curling revealed >> http://phys.org/news/2013-05-mechanism-stone-revealed.html >> quotes: >> >> <<Researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden can now reveal the >> mechanism behind the curved path of a curling stone. The discovery by the >> researchers, who usually study friction and wear in industrial and >> technical applications, is now published in the scientific journal Wear.>> >> >> <<As the stone slides over the ice the roughness on its leading half will >> produce small scratches in the ice. The rotation of the stone will give the >> scratches a slight deviation from the sliding direction. When the rough >> protrusions on the trailing half shortly pass the same area, they will >> cross the scratches from the front in a small angle. When crossing these >> scratches they will have a tendency to follow them. It is this >> scratch-guiding or track steering mechanism that generate the sideway force >> necessary to cause the curl.>> >> >> Read more at: >> http://phys.org/news/2013-05-mechanism-stone-revealed.html >> > >
