The Physics of Hockey

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The Physics of Hockey

• By Ryan D. Smith (rds5164)
• Physics 001, Section 001
• Instructor John Hopkins

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Overview

• Hockey is a sport whose actions accurately depict
  each of Isaac Newtons Laws of Motion. For a game
  that can be chaotic in the eyes of many fans, so
  many little actions on the ice can affect the
  result of the game. Many of these little actions
  come as a result of one of the Newtonian Laws.

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Newtons First Law Stationary Goalie

• States An object at rest, or in uniform straight
  line motion, will remain at rest, or in uniform
  straight line motion, unless acted upon by a net
  external force.
• In hockey, a good example a goalie standing
  still awaiting the shot
• In reality, a goalie will be moving to try to
  stop the puck
• However, when still, the goalie is not affected
  by any outside forces until the puck, or another
  player, comes into contact with him
• Another example the puck sliding along the ice
  (if we ignored friction)
• Puck will tend to stay in a constant motion along
  the ice
• While friction is evident, it is a low force of
  friction when compared to other surfaces
• If there were no friction, the puck would keep
  traveling until it hit the boards, was played by
  a stick, or was affected by an external force in
  another fashion

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Newtons Second Law Body-Checking

• As stated in class, 2nd law states A net force
  acting on a body produces on that body, an
  acceleration that is directly related to the
  force impressed upon the body and inversely
  related to the mass of the body.
• Or, simply stated, Force Mass x Acceleration
• 2nd Law deals with collisions, and in hockey,
  body-checks are a source multiple collisions in a
  game
• Bigger players are able to generate,
  mathematically speaking, bigger-force hits
  because their masses are obviously greater than
  the players they are targeting with checks
• At the same time, though, players who are smaller
  can still generate as big a check if their
  acceleration rate upon delivering a check was
  high, since both mass acceleration are
  components of the force of a body-check

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Newtons Third Law Slap Shots Skating

• According to Newton, for every action, there is
  an equal and opposite reaction
• Hockey examples range from body checks to the
  puck hitting the net
• However, two very visual examples are slap shots
  and skating
• Slap Shots
• The amount of force a player generates when
  firing a shot is equivalent to the force that the
  puck will return to the shot-taker (this explains
  the warped bend of a stick on hard shots)
• If the force the puck returns to the stick is too
  high, the stick can break
• Skating
• When a player skates, the force of his skates
  against the ice is equal to the force the ice
  returns to the skate blades
• This can be seen when a player quickly slows,
  creating a snow shower effect

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Newtons Importance

• Without knowing it, Isaac Newtons laws create
  the entire basis for the fast-paced excitement of
  hockey. Literally every type of hockey play
  involves one of his Laws, and without him, it
  would be impossible to scientifically explain
  such a frenetic-paced sport.

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Reference

• http//sharksfan14.tripod.com/id5.html
• Images
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