The Superbowl party I had the pleasure of going to this year was given by a sketch comic, and thus a bunch of his cohorts were in attendance. Much laughter occurred, except for the crack about curling. Naturally, I took offense. Curling is a lot of fun, and it really is quite strategic. Chess on ice.There's also some interesting physics involved: you sweep the ice in front of it, the friction of the broom on the ice creates heat that melts the top layer of ice, creating a slicker surface for the rock to move even further. Also, it underscores a seemingly basic question: why are things (more precisely, ice) slippery? Some Scottish blokes have made some interesting discoveries using Great Britain Curling Team as experimenters. Pretty cool experiment, with great results. They hope their study can be used to better design tires that grip better on ice. Read the article, if only to see that they spell tire as 'tYre'. Teehee they spell things different.
For your enjoyment, play some Championship Curling Game on the CBC site (it's on the left side).
UPDATE: By some weird coincidence, the Times has an even better article summing up everything that we know about ice. There's even a cool (i.e. goofy, but good) video with their science writer Kenneth Chang. Definitely worth checking out.
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