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It is possible on canals and lakes, etc. after it has been freezing for some time, and at indoor and outdoor skating tracks and areas with artificial cooling.

In some countries with a temperate climate, e.g. the Netherlands, frozen canals and lakes are fairly rare, but skating is popular where these are encountered.

1 History

2 How it works

Ice skating works because the metal blade at the bottom of the ice skate boot can glide with very little friction on top of the surface of the ice.

In the past the explaination for the lack of friction between the metal blade and the ice surface was that the pressure exerted by the blade on the ice has caused the surface of the ice to melt. It was believed that this thin layer of water allows the blade to glide over it with very little friction. This hypothesis predicts that the greater the pressure exerted by the blade, the slipperier the surface of the ice will become.

However it was found that the above explaination was false. The easiest proof is that a young light child ice skater can glide on the ice almost as frictionlessly as a larger heavy adult ice skater. Experiments has shown that the pressure exerted by the blade has little effect of the amount of friction generated.

The modern explaination says that on the surface of the ice, there is always a layer of water molecules a couple of molecules thick. This however is depended on the temperature of the surface of the ice and occurs between -157C and 0C celsuis. At temperature below -157C ice skating is no longer possible because it feels like skating on solid glass. Experiments had shown that the ice surface is slipperiest at -7C.

3 External links

• Scientific Papers
• Gabor Somorjai, the father of modern surface chemistry

4 See also

A number of sports are based on the principle of ice skating:

• figure skating
• ice hockey
• short track speed skating
• speed skating
• schoonrijden or "fancy skating" (schoonrijden.rinkes.nl)
• synchronized skatingSynchronized skating consists of 12-20 athletes skating on ice at one time moving as one flowing unit at high speeds. The team performs a program set to music, often with required elements which include circles, lines, blocks, wheels, and intersections at
• Rousette skating is a recreational event based on ice skating.
• ElfstedentochtThe Elfstedentocht or Eleven-cities Tour is a speed skating competition and leisure skating tour held irregularly in the province of Friesland, Netherlands. The tour, almost 200 km in length, is conducted on frozen canals, rivers and lakes between the ele