The friction of tilted skates on ice

TL;DR

This paper extends the theory of skate-ice friction to include tilted skates, showing that tilt angles influence friction even at low speeds, which is important for understanding speed skating dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a model for friction of tilted skates on ice, expanding beyond the traditional upright skate friction theory and highlighting the significance of tilt angles.

Findings

Tilt angles significantly affect skate-ice friction.

Friction remains fairly insensitive to velocity in speed skating.

Small tilt angles are relevant even in straight-line skating.

Abstract

The friction felt by a speed skater is calculated as function of the velocity and tilt angle of the skate. This calculation is an extension of the more common theory of friction of upright skates. Not only in rounding a curve the skate has to be tilted, but also in straightforward skating small tilt angles occur, which turn out to be of noticeable influence on the friction. As for the upright skate the friction remains fairly insensitive of the velocities occurring in speed skating.