Physical Science in Snow and Ice Sports

Physical Science in Snow and Ice Sports is part of Crabtree’s “Science Gets Physical” series. The series title says it all. Author Enzo George effectively shows how physical science applies to skiing, snowboarding, sledding, skating, and hockey.

Laws of Motion in Action
Speed skaters show all three of Newton’s Laws of Motion. Once they are moving, they stay in motion until an external force makes them stop. That is the First Law. There are many crashes in short track speed skating. The external force might be the side of the ice rink. Newton’s Second Law is that force = mass x acceleration. A skater with a heavier mass will have to create more force than other skaters to get the same acceleration. The Third Law is that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That describes what happens when the skater pushes backward with their foot. The opposite force of the ground pushes them forward

Sadly, my favourite ice sport, curling, is not mentioned, and oddly, hockey games are referred to as hockey matches. That isn’t a term I’m familiar with.

The main body of text is mostly black on white with the addition of coloured text boxes. “Science Wins!” text boxes highlight stars of the sports and how science works to enhance their performance. “Getting Physical” text boxes explain the physics behind different aspects of the sports.

Getting Physical: Dizziness
One question many people wonder about ice skaters is how they avoid getting dizzy when they make rapid spins. The organs that control our balance are tiny channels inside our ears that contain fluid and many sensitive hairs. When the fluid moves as our bodies move, the hairs detect movement and send instructions to the brain to make whatever movements are necessary to keep us balanced. When our heads spin, the fluid at first gets left behind. Then, it catches up and rotates at the same speed as the head. This can make it seem as though you are still and the rest of the world is turning around you. When you stop, however, the fluid keeps moving for a while – and that is what makes us dizzy. Skaters cannot avoid this feeling, because their bodies always obey the laws of physics. They simply have to train until they get used to it!

The photos in Physical Science in Snow and Ice Sports include a good mix of both male and females participating in the different sports. The main photo accompanying the hockey section clearly shows two female hockey players.

A significant weakness of this book is that the photos are not as well-chosen to show racial diversity. Winter sports gear hides many of the faces in the photos, but, of those that are visible, all of them appear white with one exception. Young readers could be misled to believe that winter sports are not for them if they are any colour except white. An activity included at the end of Physical Science in Snow and Ice Sports investigates friction using ice cubes and a waxed and unwaxed board. This activity would be better if the explanation of the physics was not presented directly below the question “Why do you think that might be?” The opportunity for students to come to their own conclusions based on the information in the book is removed by this poor layout of the text.

Overall, Physical Science in Snow and Ice Sports, is a book that will appeal to both sports-minded and science-minded readers. It is unfortunate that, in 2020, it doesn’t do a better job of include a more diverse population in the photos.