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Sleding

jcstack6

Entry posted by jcstack6

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Many people spend the winter practicing thrilling winter sports such as skiing or snowboarding, but I like to stick with simplicity. Sleding requires very limited skill to still have the thrill of gliding down a hill. There is also a lot of physics behind sleding, specifically how to turn on a sled. People seem to automatically know that they should lean to a side to turn to that side on a sled, but why? It's all about the normal force. The sled glides down the hill because of the force of gravity on the sled and the person in the sled but turning is a different story. Once a person leans to the side they are push by the snow because they have rotated the snows normal force on the sled. Initially the normal force is perpendicular to the sled but once the sled is turned, the normal force is at an angle, causing the sled and the person to be pushed to the side. This is why simply leaning to the slide one wants to turn works in sleding, and the basic concept even holds true in skiing and snowboarding.

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Shadoof

Shadoof 0

Posted

Wouldn't this also have something to do with frictional force as well. If leaning to one side there would be more normal force increasing the frictional force on the side slowing it down on that one side applying a torque force, spinning the sled.

jwdiehl88

jwdiehl88 0

Posted

That's really cool how one has to lean to the side with their weight and they will cause the normal force to be at an angle that causes the sled to turn. 

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