With
the curling competitions at the 2014 Winter Olympics about to get
underway, what better time to look at the work of Brett A. Marmo, Mark-Paul
Buckingham, and Jane R. Blackford of the School
of Engineering & Electronics and the Centre for Materials Science & Engineering, at The University of Edinburgh, UK, who have
performed a series of empirical studies into the methodology, physics and
game-implications of ‘sweeping’ in front of a moving granite curling stone
(a.k.a. rock)?
The
team designed and implemented a purpose built ‘sweep ergometer’ (prototype
pictured right) in order to perform a quantitative measurement of the sweeping
technique – believed to be the first time since the game’s invention.
The
energy-measuring brush was subsequently used in (at least) two further studies
: ‘Optimising Sweeping
Techniques for Olympic Curlers’ (In: The Engineering of Sport, 6,
2006, pp 249-254). And, (along with colleague I.S. Farrow) ‘Frictional heat generated by sweeping in curling and
its effect on ice friction’ (in: Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers, Part L: Journal of Materials: Design and Applications, October
1, 2006 vol. 220 no. 4 189-197)
BONUS (related) A video from the Friends of
Canadian Institutes of Health Research, featuring Dr. Jim Till : “The Physics
of Curling: Does Sweeping Matter?”