The blade of the hockey skate is manufactured so that that the edges of the bottom of the blade is protruding outwards, making the blade sharp at the sides of the blade. The sharp edges which run parallel on the sides of the blade are called a "teeth." See the diagrams. Try pressing your finger against the teeth; you should see an imprint on your finger.
Dimensions: The width of the blade is about 3 mm. The length of the blade is slightly longer than the size of your foot. The sides of the blade are curved. The reasons for this design is that the skate can easily slide over any irregularities on the ice and the blade itself has less contact area with the ice. The blades are usually stainless steel.
When the blade becomes dull, the jagged edges of the blade disappear and the bottom of the blade itself looses the microscopic grooves produced by a skate sharpener. Have you tried skating with "dull" skates?
Or skates that are beginning to rust? When your skates are no longer sharp, you must send them to be sharpened: the sharpness provides the control and safety. How do we skate? It is due to the simple design of the hockey skate, a player is able to have control of his or her intended path, co-ordination, and speed. When the front of your skate faces your intended direction, the bottom of the blade simply slides on the ice surface. However, if you start shaking and your skates begin to oscillate for a moment, the interference of the teeth slides against the path, causing you to slow down or change direction.
When you are skating forward, one leg pushes the skate against the ice, while the other skate slides freely. The skates exchange their roles as you are skating.When you are making strides, the teeth provides a plouging effect, creating the friction required for you to skate faster. Newton's Third Law The third law of motion states: Whenever one object exerts a force on a second object, the second exerts an equal and opposite force on the first. Simply, there is a reaction force for an action force.
This law is obeyed when you push one of your skates backwards, and the ice in return, pushes you forwards.
Again when you make a stride, the teeth "grinds" against the ice, allowing friction to be great; as you let go of your skates, the force applied onto the ice now pushes you forward.
More can be said about Newton's Third law when you stop. How is it that hockey players reach the puck quickly and then suddenly stop--this in fact, occurs in a mere second! In order to stop, you have to position your body so that your body from waist below is perpendicular to the direction; all this does is placing the sharpness of the blade against the ice surface. Furthermore, a large magnitude of force has to be exerted onto the ice; you need to have sufficient energy to increase the pressure on the ice. As you stop, the sharp edges cut into the ice so that it is deep enough for a wall to be created, bringing you to a full stop (see diagram). Friction prevents you from further sliding off this wall. All in all, the time of the stop depends on the amount of force exerted: a greater force will result in an abrupt stop.
The Sliding of the Puck This flat disc of vulcanized rubber is called a puck (diagram).The puck's mass range from 158 to 163 g.
The puck is the ideal "ball" for the game of hockey because of its characteristics. It is a solid that is flat black and can be seen clearly on the ice. Next, the puck slides as on its flat side(s) without bounce and erratic shifts in movement; that is why players can handle the puck easily. One disadvantage of the puck is the dangerous speed it can reach when it is shot-- protection wear is a must to absorb the impact of a speedy puck. |
