The physics of hockey (well some of it)

So back before I injured my knee I used to play hockey. I loved the sport and I was pretty good at it, nothing great but pretty good. I did however have quite the slap shot. At a camp they measured how fast using a speedometer. It clocked in at 86 miles per hour, which wasn’t too shabby for being in 8^th grade. Now let’s find the acceleration of the puck.

Saying that the puck stays flat on the ice for the whole distance (20m) traveled and neglecting friction and saying it takes 3 seconds to reach the net we know:

Vi: 5m/s

Vf: 86 mph or 38.4 m/s

D: 20m

A: ?

T: 3 s

We can use the equation:

a= v/t

a= 35.4/3s

a=11.8 m/s

The slap shot encompasses many parts of physics; the stick has potential energy as it flexes back as well as kinetic energy from being swung forward, the mass of the player helping accelerate the puck in a quicker time.