Figure Skating
By:Gracie Whitmire
How The Sport is Played
Clink you hear the sound of skates dropping onto the ice.In figure skating you can play by yourself or with a partner.How do you get points you say? You get points by doing spins and complicated jumps like a jump and a spin and other hard moves like that. Most of all you try to impress the judges. There are two performances a short one short one and a long one.
The Science Of The Sport
Did you know that when you do a jump how high you go depends on something called angular momentum? If you generate more angular momentum your jump is higher and if you generate less angular momentum your jump is lower. Also in a spin angular momentum can make you go faster or slower. When you push off the ground you generate angular momentum and you generate vertical velocity which will get you high enough to do your spins.Vertical velocity comes from the forces of when you take off.
Fun Facts
Did you know that figure skaters are skating on a thin layer of water? This happens because of friction. Friction produces heat so the top layer of ice melts so then there is a thin layer of water on top of the ice. Guess what your arms can make a difference in your speed, this is called the law of conservation of angular momentum. With a smaller body position you will go faster and with a bigger position you will go slower, Like if you put your arms in you will go fast but if you put your arms out you will go slow.