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Comment on “A Scratch-Guide Model for the Motion of a Curling Rock”

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Abstract

For several years, there has been disagreement in the literature over the “scratch-guiding mechanism” first published by Nyberg et al. (Wear 301:583–589, 2013) in 2013 and recently quantified by Penner (Tribol Lett 67:35.1–35.13, 2019) in 2019. According to this proposal, the lateral motion of curling rocks can be influenced by pre-existing scratches on the ice. In particular, it is argued that scratches made by the front of the running band can “push” the back of the running band to the left or to the right, depending on their orientation. We offer here a critique of the Penner paper (Penner in Tribol Lett 67:35.1–35.13, 2019), alluding inter alia to recently published experimental results (Shegelski and Lozowski https://doi.org/10.1177/1754337118821575, 2019), which clearly demonstrate that scratches made by the running band of a curling rock have no influence on the trajectories of a subsequent rock travelling over those scratches. We also point out some apparent inconsistencies and deficiencies in the Penner model itself.

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References

  1. Penner, R.: A scratch-guide model for the motion of a curling rock. Tribol. Lett. 67, 35.1–35.13 (2019)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E3, Canada

    Edward Lozowski

  2. Department of Physics, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC, V2N 4Z9, Canada

    Mark R. A. Shegelski, Mitchell Hawse, Seth Lowry, Caleb Sample & Matthew Reid

Authors
  1. Edward Lozowski
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  2. Mark R. A. Shegelski
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  3. Mitchell Hawse
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  4. Seth Lowry
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  5. Caleb Sample
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  6. Matthew Reid
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Correspondence to Mark R. A. Shegelski.

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Lozowski, E., Shegelski, M.R.A., Hawse, M. et al. Comment on “A Scratch-Guide Model for the Motion of a Curling Rock”. Tribol Lett 68, 2 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-019-1242-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-019-1242-z

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